Making the most of First Day Photos

Kindergarten is HUGE milestone in a child's life and one that parents want to keep fresh in their minds forever!  Being the mom of 3 grow daughters I know that I would give ANYTHING to relive kindergarten with my girls.  Here is a fun project that will help you preserve this special milestone year for your families. 

THE BACKDROP 

You have to be quick on that first day because there are ZERO procedures in place and this could fall apart at any moment.  I like to take our pictures when I give the students some free explore time in the classroom. It is pretty quick to call them up one at a time and snap a pic on your phone. If they are busy playing with blocks it is a great time to take pictures! 

Even better....have someone come in and do it for you! (My daughter did last year. It was SO NICE!) Also my husband stops in every year at some point to take a picture of me with the class. I adore him for this little selfless act he has done since my first year of teaching. Sorry for the mushy moment....   

Backdrops are tricky. I like to use the same backdrop at the beginning of the year and at the end so we can have a cute side by side for their memory books. 

Let me share a little trick I learned for setting up that backdrop!  I wanted to use a sheet one year and it was a PAIN to stick to the wall on the first day because it was a fitted sheet and my tape wouldn't stick. At the end of the year I realized it was a fitted sheet (duh) and all I had to do was hang it on the door to make a backdrop.  Perfect! 

Why was I wasting time with tape when I could have been doing this?  Next year I'm going to try a white sheet.  Twin size fitted sheets are less than $5 at Walmart. Easy peasy and it can double as a sheet to cover your bookshelves for the summer.

THE PROP

Give your kiddos something to hold that shows it was the first day of school.  No, I'm not talking a newspaper like in a ransom pic (although that might be adorable) something like this: 

I painted this K with chalkboard paint so I could write on it each year.

 THE FOLLOW THROUGH

DO SOMETHING with the photos once you take them.  Mine automatically save from my phone to my Google Drive so they were safe there.  At the end of the year I take an identical picture and put them side by side.  The results are so cute! 

Can you tell I got a new phone half way through the school year this year?  Even though they are not perfect (the unevenness drives me a little crazy) the OVERLOAD of cuteness makes up for it.  I send them to parents that I'm friends with on Facebook and the kiddos include these in their memory books.  Each one was so unique and fun! 

To save them side by side I download them to my computer (from Google Photos) and then drag them into a Powerpoint presentation. Resize the pictures to make them fit and that's it! Print straight from the Powerpoint to send home with parents or save as a PDF to send electronically. 

Those are my tips friends!  I've actually followed through 3 years in a row now.  I'm pretty proud of that!  It's WAY too easy to get busy and forget the little things but it's the little things that mean so much.  I will never forget how important the first day of Kindergarten was to my little ones.

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