How To Make A Classroom Slideshow
Parents love slideshows too! After our kindergarten year end awards program we invite all of the families back to our rooms. I play our classroom DVD for my kids and their families. When the slideshow is finished, there are only a couple of dry eyes in the entire room and those are usually the dads who are trying to act tough.
I've even had countless parents tell me that their child spent all summer watching our classroom DVD over and over again. And I have to admit that I also spend some time during the summer watching slideshows from previous years. But I did realize last year, that I had been following the same steps or process each year without even realizing it.
Disclaimer - Now this is by no means the only way to make a slideshow DVD. I'm sure there are plenty of tech savvy people out there who could show you way cooler things to do with iMovie than I ever could. I decided to break this tutorial down into parts. Otherwise it would be a ridiculously long blog post!
If you already know how to do some of these steps, just skip down to the ones you want. I will be adding links to each part after the entire series is finished. Let's get it started! Throughout the year I upload all my classroom photos to one album in iPhoto. Its easier to get a good look at each photo once uploaded to iPhoto because you can adjust the size of the photos.
This is when I get rid of my blurry photos or ones that I just don't want in my slideshow. If you haven't been uploading your photos to iPhoto all year, that's okay, you can do it now. Once you get your photos imported into iPhoto, create a new album and name your album.
Then you can start clicking and dragging all the photos you want to use into the album. I like to move my photos around in iPhoto rather than waiting until I upload everything to iMovie. Just my own personal preference because I can see the pictures in iPhoto so much better than in iMovie, where they are teeny tiny. Miss Kriss's Tip (definitely not something you have to do) - I like to take a picture of each individual student and put these at the beginning of my classroom slideshow.
Then later in iMovie I add each child's name to the bottom of their picture. I think this adds a special touch because it showcases each individual child. I let my students choose their favorite spot on our playground for their individual pictures. After these individual photos I go right into our classroom pictures. Mine are in chronological order, because I'm a little bit OCD, but yours can be in any order you like.
Once I get all my pictures where I want them its time for the next step. The first thing you need to do in iTunes is to create a new playlist. I titled my slideshow playlist "Slideshow." So creative, I know. Then it's time to start hunting for some good sentimental music. If you already have some and know how to put it into your new album, skip on down. For everyone else, you'll either need to purchase music from the iTunes Store or import music from your CDs before moving on.
If you already have some songs on your iTunes that you want to use, go ahead and drag them to your new slideshow playlist. I like to use more popular mainstream music as well as classics. But other teachers I know like to use classroom favorites like Dr. Jean or Jack Hartman. If you have CDs with good songs you'd like to use, you'll need to import the songs into your iTunes. Just insert the CD. A box will pop up asking you if you want to import the CD. Click yes and the import will begin.
