Smile! Say Cheese! It's Photo Booth Time!

Recently, I co-coordinated the third grade winter party for my son and his classmates -- we set up stations and did lot of different activities over the course of the two hour event. The biggest hit of the party was our photo booth (thanks to Corey for the fabulous idea). When initially exploring how to make a photo booth happen, I started pricing instant photo printers, but quickly realized I didn't want to spend that kind of money on this party. So, in an "aha" moment, I figured out how bring a photo booth to life digitally. It was remarkably easy to set up and to present live -- as the pictures were taken -- in each classroom using Google. And there are a plethora of ways to incorporate a photo booth into your classroom, library, or other school event.

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So, how could you use a photo booth in your classroom or school? Some ideas beyond a holiday party could include:

• Costume party: Are students dressed as characters from a book they studied? Or an individual they researched? Or in a costume for Halloween? It's the perfect opportunity for a photo booth.
• Spirit week: Different themes each day? Set up a photo booth in cafeteria to capture the school spirit!
• Unit wrap-up: Each student creates a photo booth prop (or two!) that best represent that unit.
• SCA Dance: Great way to capture the energy and excitement of a dance.
• First Day: Students could create their own prop or sign to hold up and pose -- this could be a great get-to-know-you activity.
• Last Day: Wrap up the end of the year with a celebratory photo booth -- signs and props could represent what students learned.
• Favorite Book: Students and staff could pose holding their favorite book (this could be for library orientation, a special family night event, or something ongoing throughout the whole year).
• Student project share: Did your students create something for a project? Have them pose with their work of art, their engineering creation, or whatever it is they built!
• Community night: Students and families post together celebrating whatever event is happening (this would be fun for curriculum night as new students and families come into the building to learn about the school).

And now, the nitty gritty. It's actually quite simple to build, I promise.

PHOTO BOOTH SET UP:

• Create a new Google Slides presentation
• Make a simple frame as your slide default and then copy that slide LOTS of times. Consider how many photos you think will be taken at your event -- at the 3rd grade party with 45 students taking primarly group photos we had about 100.

​(Here's a 10 photo slide template I built so you don't have to deal with the first two steps. Just click FILE > MAKE A COPY and then edit it to work with your lesson or activity!​)

• Once you're happy with your template, click FILE > PUBLISH TO WEB -- this is key to being able to share the photo booth as the pictures are taken (on a screen in front of the classroom, for example). My preferred settings are:
  • Auto-advance slides / every 5 seconds
  • ✓ Start slide show as soon as the player loads
  • ✓ Restart the slideshow after the last slide
• Then click PUBLISH. Make sure you copy the LINK you get and hold it somewhere safe (I like to turn it into an easy-to-remember, event-related URL using TinyUrl). This is the web address you'll pull up on the screen to share your presentation on the big screen (in front of the classroom, in the cafeteria or dance, or when you send it home to share with your families). If you forget to copy it, just go back to FILE > PUBLISH TO WEB and it will be there waiting for you.

​OTHER TO-DO AHEAD OF TIME

• Pull together photo booth props (hats, boas, sunglasses, signs): create your own (signs are easy to make with some cardstock, popsicle sticks and duct tape), hit up the dollar store, or order them online.
• Decide on a back drop (it should be simple so as not to distract from the excitement of the photos -- a plain black curtain, a large sheet of solid colored buletin board paper, etc.
• Download the Google Slides app on to the device (phone, tablet, etc.) that you, your students, or a parent volunteer will be using to take the photos

TO-DO DAY OF EVENT

• ​Set up back drop and props
• Pull up the URL (from back in the PUBLISH step) anywhere you want to show the photo booth -- a big screen or even just a laptop next to the photo booth station.
• Open up the Google Slides App, log in to the account on which you created your photo booth, and navigate to the first empty photo frame slide. 
• Next:
  1. Click the + (plus)
  2. Select "Image"
  3. Choose "From Camera"

1- CLICK Plus (+)

2- SELECT "Image"

3- CLICK "From Camera"

• Snap your photo and -- BOOM -- it appears on your slide. Resize as necessary, navigate to the next slide, and repeat.
• Enjoy the photo booth!

Do you think you could use a photo booth in your classroom or library? I'd love to hear your ideas! And please reach out if you need help getting your photo booth set up.

​-Gretchen

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• BubbleUp Take5: Cooking, coding, and Snapchat (November 29, 2016)