Our Family Photo Album Introduction Our Family Photo Album is an activity that can be used in any cycle at the elementary level to supplement a thematic unit on the family. It consists of a PowerPoint presentation representing pages from a family photo album. Students use their imagination to form original family groups that are photographed and placed in the album. They write creative descriptions of their family and add voice-over if time permits. Objective Through the use of ICTs (digital camera or scanner, word processing, and Microsoft PowerPoint), students have an opportunity to reinvest vocabulary learned in the classroom and to experiment writing descriptive text.

Lesson Plan Materials: ~ 1 or more computers ~ Digital camera or scanner with 35mm camera ~ Microsoft PowerPoint ~ Our Family Photo Album Tutorial slides 1-6 and Our Family Photo Album Student Presentation slides 7 and 8 with instructions Time required: This depends on the number of families per class. Preparation:  Determine how many family members there will be per family (groups of 3-5).  Ask your students to divide themselves into families and to consider the following: 1) What kind of family will their family be? (Will it consist of people, animals, a family in literature, a famous family, cartoon characters, a television family, aliens, etc.?) 2) Who will be in their family? (Will there be a mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, stepmother, stepfather, aunt, uncle, cousin, pet, etc.) 3) What characteristics will each member have? (physical description, personality traits, hobbies, likes and dislikes, etc.) 4) Are there any funny stories or interesting facts about their families? (pastimes, vacation, sports, where they live, job, etc.)

Lesson Plan (cont’d) PowerPoint Tips to remember:  Whenever you wish to leave the slide show but remain in the PowerPoint, click ESC.  To create more slides for all the families in your class, duplicate Slide 8.  To delete a slide, click on your slide icon, click EDIT, select DELETE SLIDE, or you can BACK SPACE.  To create effects between slides, click SLIDE SHOW and select SLIDE TRANSITION. Where to store your family photos and family sounds (recordings): 1) Create a folder and call it “Family Album”. You can place it on your desktop. 2) Create two new folders inside the “Family Album” folder. Name one “Family Photos” and the other “Family Sounds”. You will save all family photos and recordings in these folders and your students will go to these folders to retrieve them.  Organize a “photo-shoot” day. On this day, all students come to class with costumes, wigs, props, etc. to be photographed as the family member they have created. Take a photo of each family and a photo of all the families together for the album cover.  Add sound to your slides by having students read the screen text and record it. Follow the instructions at the bottom of Slide 8 to record.  When you have finished your presentation, delete the Tutorial, Slides 1 to 6.

Our Family Photo Album Example

The Corker Family Example This is the Corker family. Old Granny Corker lives with her grandchildren: Sly, who is very camera shy; Slim, who is a personal trainer; and little Baby Boo, who is two and always sucks his thumb. Granny Corker is 102 years old!!! She bowls every Tuesday night and really likes rap music. When Sly isn’t on the computer, he’s out skateboarding. Slim has enormous muscles. She likes to exercise. Boo likes to suck his thumb and…suck his thumb. They all like to vacation together at La Ronde where Granny’s favourite ride is The Monster. Boo likes it too.

The Spike Family Mr. and Mrs. Spike live in a little village called Paradise. They have three lovely children. Chrissy is ten and loves to celebrate Christmas. She is always dressed in holiday decorations. Mike has long black hair and always wears a tuque, even to bed. He acts tough but is really a nice guy. Nanie is only three years old but is very big for her age. She wears her red pyjamas wherever she goes. Mrs. Spike has long, curly red hair. Mr. Spike tells her she looks like someone in a Harry Potter film. Mr. Spike likes to read Sherlock Holmes stories and the newspaper. Mrs. Spike thinks he looks like someone too! Example

Our Family Photo Album Family Photo Album cover page. Students begin here.

Family Slide