Photo Booth Ideas
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Students take wacky pictures of themselves with Photo Booth, then write stories about how they came to look like they
did in their pictures.
Reading Improvement/Assessment- Make a movie of your students as they read out loud. Do this a couple time through
out the year. Videos show how their reading has improved through out the year.
Teaching Symmetry- Use the mirror effect to show symmetry.
Student Newscast/Daily Announcements- Students can use video to create daily announcements or a special newscast.
Use a photo of the school as the background.
Make a how to video- Make a short video reinforcing concepts learned in class. Post them on a class web page to be used
as homework help.
Help get to know student’s name and face- Take a picture of each student and create a class directory or seating chart.
Video Blog- Create a video blog of what was talked about in class.
Book Review/Report for project- Allow students to use the video to do a book review or report.
Use an image as a background - not hard to do - and explain the significance - or create a riddle relating to the image. (i.e.
This famous American was born in 1851 in Springfield, IL ..."
Learning tool- videos to practice a speech/presentation or poem.
I create a “How are you feeling today?” grid in Pages or Word and save as a template. Students take pictures of
themselves displaying the different emotions and drag and drop onto the template. When they are finished we print them
out and create a class book of emotions. This is a wonderful way to teach students empathy.
Photo Booth can also be used at the beginning of the year for a getting-to-know you project. Create a bulletin board with
student pictures.
Students could use Photo Booth to star in their own stories. Teachers, take pictures of students throughout the year as
you podcast students reading. The photos with the podcasts make an excellent end of the year gift for students and parents
as they can see and hear students growth throughout the year.
Create a classroom “dictionary” where students create definitions for themselves along with their pictures. When
teaching action verbs, have students take pictures of themselves actually doing an action verb.
Need to take a quick Photo Booth picture without the 3-second delay? Hit OPTION while clicking the shutter button
below the picture. Voila!
Video Story Problems This is probably the easiest way to use Photo Booth, and requires the least amount of prep
and/or technical skill. Find a few good visual props (food works well), or find a place to video that’s authentic (like
your living room), to engage the students a bit more. You don’t have to be perfect, and if you keep the problem
short enough, even if you mess up terribly you can always get a couple of takes in under 5 minutes. Once you’re
done recording you’re all set! You can just bring up Photo Booth when you get to school, and play back the video
problem, or find the video in your Movies folder.
Storytelling There is a significant amount of time which has to be invested in student planning, writing, and
editing before they actually sit down in front of the computer to record. Once a solid, and well practiced story is
ready for the camera; sit down, record, make sure to go all the way through to the end despite mistakes
(sometimes it lends authenticity to the piece), and then stop and review. Students could tell stories about what’s
going on in class that week, an important realization or learning objective they’ve met, or just have a video
performance for a piece of fiction or non-fiction they may have written.
Daily Video Journal This is probably my most favorite idea, because after a little bit of modeling at the beginning
of the school year, it could be completely student run. This would work especially well at the elementary level for
those teachers that have “star students” each day or week. Likewise, if a teacher has multiple jobs within the room,
it could be an assigned task for one student to record the days learning experiences to then reflect upon, upload to
a school website for sharing with parents, or to help students organize their thoughts after a long day. You could
have either one student, or a group of students collect notes throughout the day about the big learning objectives
and goals reached, or activities participated in, and then do a simple video digest of the notes towards the end of
the day.
Time lapse experiment. Kids have to take their pictures with it every time they walk into the lab. They will be able to
make a cool slide show by the end of the year!
20. Create nametags to help me learn their names. I work with the entire school population (520 eager learners!) every week.
Early in the school year, kids take a quick photo, add name then create a Wordle with first name/last name and a few
“faves” listed. Both documents are put into a sheet protector that comes in handy for me, for substitutes, for creating table
groups.
21. Take pictures of individual students in Photo Booth, organize and edit the photos in iPhoto, and then use them in various
projects, such as “About the Author”, news reports, podcasts, etc.
22. Take pictures of students throughout the year and add to their podcasts. The photos along with the podcasts are excellent
because you can see and hear students’ growth throughout the year.
23. Create a news report, eye witness account, "living history" presentation, etc. by recording yourself/students.
24. Create weekly/monthly class news reports that can be posted on your classroom blog or website.
25. Interview an inventor, scientist, pilgrim, government worker, etc.
26. Explain how to do a math problem.
27. Write and present a math problem for classmates to solve.
28. Summary, main idea, character analysis, etc.
29. Book review, recommendation, evaluation, etc. – Good idea for Blue Bonnet books
30. Create a report about something you are studying (i.e. states, planets, biomes, etc.)
31. Create an infomercial (nonfiction, informational writing)
32. Commercial (persuasive writing)
33. Create a classroom “dictionary” where students create definitions for themselves along with their pictures.
34. When teaching action verbs, have students take pictures of themselves performing the action verb.
35. Define, explain, or act out the meaning of vocabulary words or various emotions or reactions.
36. Recite a poem or speech.
37. Perform a reader's theater.
38. Create “Getting to Know You” clips at the beginning of the year. Have students rotate through during centers to learn
more about their classmates.
39. Research and present findings about weather, food chains, life cycles, planets, or any other unit of study.
40. Character education development – “How are you feeling today?” – students take pictures of themselves displaying the
different emotions. They can then drag/drop the pictures into a Pages template and then print them out and create a class
book of emotions.
41. Video a teacher while he/she is teaching writing, guided reading, math solutions – use to train/educate other teachers.
42. Perform with action figures, puppets, animals, etc. and act out a scene from a book, play, etc.
43. Public Service Announcements (PSAs): playground behavior, procedures, cafeteria behavior, hand washing,
sneezing/coughing into sleeve, announcements, etc.
44. Reading Assessment – have the students read a passage at the beginning of the year, mid-year, and end of the
year. Students/teachers can compare/assess student progress.
45. Oral Spelling, Math, Science, etc. tests – teacher dictates test in front of Photo Booth camera and then provides to absent
students or to other students as a reteaching tool.
46. Demonstrate writing, math problem, etc.; upload to website/blog for parents to review with/assist their students.
47. Record essential lectures/teaching or lesson for a sub to show to students during teacher’s absence.
48. Drag photos of student created artwork/backgrounds into Photo Booth and then record/photograph students in front of the
artwork/backdrop
49. Student Council or other elections – prerecord and playback later
50. School announcements – record early – add green screen – playback later.
51. Use marker boards to create speech bubbles when taking a picture.
52. Use it with ComicLife to create a graphic novel.
53. Puppet show with students using the puppets and recording the show
54. Photos of the students on the first day of school
55. Recording a student reading as concrete evidence
56. Interviewing students about a topic instead of them writing a record of an event
57. Visual record of paintings (with the student's face) for a digital portfolio
58. Responding to text - act out what they are doing - gives a sense of stage
59. Day book - what did we do today in the class- and have the recording playing when the parents come to pick up the
children
60. Claymation
61. Math for reasoning, reflective questioning
62. Photo Booth takes the place of a video camera
63. Recording, authoring and documentation tool
64. Student driven creation of work
65. Gives the students a chance to reflect on data created by each other