Exercise Visual-Spatial Skills by Taking Online School Yearbook Photos

by Tracy Ostwald Kowald · Published May 13, 2014 · Updated February 2, 2017

Get your cameras ready! May is National Photography Month, and photographers of all ages are snapping pics and entering photo contests. As the end of the school year approaches, you and your child can get involved by contributing to his or her school’s yearbook.

Create Your Online School Yearbook

To work on a yearbook, find photos from throughout the school year or snap new ones using these tips for taking yearbook photos.

Consider adding photos of:

Field trips and other off-site learning adventures
Your home classroom
Craft projects
Friends and family reading, studying, or posed at the computer
Assignments or projects that are points of pride

Once your child collects the photos, you can work together to assemble them in a photo album or a handmade book. Attending families can also contribute to Connections Academy’s digital school yearbook.

Building Visual-Spatial Skills

Working on this yearbook project is a great way for children to exercise their visual-spatial skills. Creating photos, or “making pictures,” takes time and thought. Frame the subject of the picture. Find a background that enhances the subject rather than distracts from it. Look at the light source. Will the sun or the indoor lighting brighten up the subject or create a glare or shadow? Paying attention to these details can help students mentally manipulate space and process visual information.

Psychologist Howard Gardner proposed that visual-spatial was one of several different types of “intelligences” that can be interpreted as skills or learning styles. The other skills in Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences include verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and bodily-kinesthetic.

Students with highly developed visual-spatial skills often demonstrate these strengths by:

Learning concepts all at once, rather than in steps
Seeing the “big picture”
Reading maps and giving directions
Noticing colors and patterns
Creating or decorating personal space
Demonstrating understanding by drawing or sketching
Observing and remembering details
Using graphs or tables to solve problems
Enjoying mechanics, technology, and engineering
Showing interest in classes such as physical sciences, computer programming, mathematics, and art
Developing hobbies like crafts, sewing, knitting, or building scale models

Visual-Spatial Clubs

Another way for your child to exercise his or her visual-spatial skills is to join a virtual school club. Some of the clubs that visual-spatial learners may enjoy include:

Tell us how your yearbook photos turn out! Feel free to share your photos on Facebook or enter our Most Memorable Moments video contest to show your best memories of the school year. Don’t forget to discuss other visual-spatial exercises in the comments below.