Make Your Own Photo Blocks

Ages/Grades

Preschool, Early Elementary

 

Learning Domains

Social Emotional, Language & Literacy

 

Materials

• • Photos of children
• • Wide clear tape (like packing tape) or clear contact paper
• • Laminator (optional)
• • Tacky glue or hot glue (optional)
• • Blocks, cardboard tubes, or other recycled materials to create stands

 

Ready, Set, Create!

• Snap a head-to-toe photo of each of your students.

• Decide on the base that you will use to make your photo blocks. Check out the examples below – the possibilities are endless! The size of your base will help you decide how big your photo prints should be.

  No need to purchase special supplies for the bases. Ask around for extra blocks, safe woodworking offcuts (untreated wood and splinter free), or extra parts from games. Check the recycling bin for clean, sturdy cardboard. For older children, smaller options (like a Jenga-style block from an incomplete set) are just right. You can even build a base from interlocking bricks!

• Use your preferred method to print a photo of each child.

• If you have access to a laminator, you can laminate the photos before you cut them out. This will make them sturdier, especially if you’re not securing them directly to the face of a block.
• Cut out the photos and secure to the block with wide clear tape, or clear contact paper.

• If you are using a different type of base (best for older children) secure the photo onto your base with hot-glue, tacky glue, or tape.

• Add the photos to your classroom environment! Block, construction, and small world play are the most common places that photos blocks are used, but the possibilities are endless!

Engage Children in Conversation

• Invite children to reflect on their photos:
• Do you remember the day or moment this photo was taken?
• How do you think you were feeling right then?
• What was going on right before or after that photo was snapped?
• Would you like to go back and have that moment/event/day all over again? Why or why not?
• Invite other children to ask their classmates questions about their photos.

Extensions

• • Use your class set of photo blocks to play “What’s the Same?” Choose two or more photo blocks that share an attribute. Keep that attribute in mind, but don’t share it out loud. Invite children to find things that are the same across all of the selected photo block. Examples might include aspects of clothing (“All three children on these photo blocks have a pocket on their shirt!”) or environment (“The four children on these blocks were outdoors when their photo was taken”). Invite children to take turns choosing the attribute and responding to guesses.
• • Use your photo blocks to play a variation on Simon Says to practice giving and following multiple-step directions. Let your students give this game their own name. My students called it, “I’m the Boss!” For example, “I’m the boss! Put Sarah on top of a red block. Put Michael next to Sarah, but make him upside down.”
• • Invite families to send in photos of siblings, other family members or pets.
• • Add photo blocks of other important people in your school community.
• • Personalize your morning sign-in ritual by integrating photo blocks.
• • Use children’s photo blocks as a manipulative to represent votes on classroom decisions. For example, if a group is choosing between three read-alouds, place the three books on the carpet, and each children is invited to place their photo block under their preferred story.

Modifications

• For use with toddlers, be sure photos are securely attached to the face of a block, and supervise their play so you can remove/repair as needed.