Enhancing Descriptive Language using iPad Photography

This Literacy activity is a creative way for students to explore descriptive language using the magnify and photo markup tools on iPad. 

What can you see?

Our Little Learners have been learning all about nature during our Forest School sessions. During one session they noticed how the frost was making the spider webs more visible. They were so engaged in following the threads of silk and talking about how the spider could possibly have created the web. We took the iPad and used the Magnify function to zoom in close to the silk to look more closely at the detail and patterns the spider had created. 

 

Magnified image of a spider web
Using the magnify function to take a close up photo of the web.

Taking it a step further.

After having a close look at the web with the Magnify tool, I could hear the children start to describe the spider web to each other - “it looks so shiny”… “I think it’s really fragile, be careful”. So I took the opportunity to develop their descriptive language. We grabbed an Apple Pencil, took a photo using Magnify and began to mark up the photo of the spider web together. As we began to chat more, the language continued to flow. By the end of the session we had a collection of every word we could possibly think of to describe what we could see. 

 

Magnified image of a spider web with markup writing
Photo markup on original image

How to use this feature with your class

Look around outdoors or inside your classroom for things that could be made more interesting by taking a closer look. Perhaps you're studying shapes, so you decide to magnify the patterns in the Bug Hotel. Maybe you're learning a language and you decide to magnify the bark on a tree and describe it in another language. Maybe you're exploring the parts of a flower, so you go in close and markup what you can see. With such a simple activity, the opportunities are endless. I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments, maybe they'll inspire someone else to have a go!

How To

Open the Magnify tool (check that it's added to your Control Centre) and zoom in. When you're ready, take a photo and share it to Photos. Go to the photo, choose Edit, then Markup and begin experimenting. Find the 'Get Closer to the Detail' activity here to explore more about this brilliant Everyone Can Create activity.


1 reply

November 24, 2024

Wonderful lesson in creative words and so simple. Also fantastic that it is an outdoors activity with the camera. A very cool way to brainstorm!

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