Flash! It's Over

Photography came and went with the rest of our summer program.  If it were up to me, I would love a do-over week.  If I had been better prepared and was able to plan successfully, I think the unit would have been amazing.  Unfortunately aspects of the job that are out of my control took force and battles were lost.

What I wish had happened:  I wanted to make a lot of activities for the Sharks to use in various centers. Such as:

• Photograph memory game
• Puppet show pieces (photographs of either animals or community helpers) using popsicle sticks and laminated pictures
• Cardboard cameras made by the kids (tracing a circle, cutting it out, gluing it on as the lens and the same thing but a rectangle for the flash and viewfinder)
• Tissue box cameras (I think I described these in a previous post)
• Holding an art show showcasing the pictures they took with disposable cameras and inviting parents to come (like an art gallery opening)

What really happened:  We were given four disposable cameras on Monday, but that was Ms. H's day off and then I got sick and wasn't able to make it in.  I had no official plans written up for the day and I have no idea what the sub ended up doing.  (I did, however, ask her to continue last week's unit on forest creatures.)  Tuesday we were supposed to go on a picnic field trip, but due to weather conditions that was cancelled.  We did get to finally introduce the photography unit and I switched out the library shelf to contain books about art and books with photograph pictures.  During circle they learned the new vocabulary (flash, lens, viewfinder, clicker) and seemed to really enjoy it.  I showed them the cameras and set ground rules.  Because there were only four cameras, but lots of friends, we wrote down names in groups on each camera so three to four friends could use each camera.  I specifically did that so for the art show we could display the photos with the groups of children to make it a little more special.  For instance:  Child A, B, and C were on Camera 1.  At the show we'd have pictures of Child A, B, and C below a showcase of photos from Camera 1 to show ownership of the photos.  The rest of the week's curriculum went down the drain after that.  I was asked to be out of the classroom because of numbers and staffing conflicts and my little Sharks ate way too many Crazy Flakes for breakfast... Every.  Single.  Day.  By Thursday all the cameras had been used up.  My day off is Friday, so I wrote up a plan for Ms. H to follow for curriculum for then.  I was hoping for the Sharks to use the cameras as toys in dramatic play or at the science center and for Ms. H to take pictures of them for documentation purposes because we hadn't gotten around to it previously.  I also asked on Thursday to get the pictures developed for the art show, but was told it wasn't happening.  Today I got a text from Ms. H around noon saying she was sent home early because of numbers.  So I'm not sure yet what got accomplished.  I'm hoping at the very least preschool had fun and the pictures get developed.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. -Martin Luther King Jr.