The month of May is National Photography Month (NPM)! Use this celebration to support the literacy and learning growth of your child.
Here are just a few ways to use NPM to create rich learning moments:
- Search! Finding great pictures can also be a thousand-word journey! With your child, decide what kind of photos you want to find. Will you start at home with your family photos - or go online to look for exotic or funny animal pictures?
- Sort! Sorting and sequencing are complex cognitive behaviors that children need for school success - and photos are a great opportunity for both! This is especially good for printed family photos that may not have been organized yet.
- Talk! Looking at (and searching and sorting) photos will give you a natural opening to talk with your child about...everything! Tell them about your Great Aunt Patricia and her adventures teaching in a Kansas one-room schoolhouse. Ask them why they like spider monkeys. Talk about what you see in photos, what you want to learn more about because of the photos, or just how they make you feel.
- Write! Using pictures as writing prompts can be especially effective with old photos of unfamiliar people and places. The Library of Congress has digitized a massive collection of old photographs (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/) perfect for this use. Find a photo you both like and write in response to "What is going on here? How is this person feeling? What happened right after this picture was taken?"
Finally, take a selfie to cap off your learning and celebrate National Photography Month!
-- Laura Raphael, Children's Services Coordinator