Photos For Learning Journals

[karenlatoy]

I have recently joined the forum and have found lots of fantastic ideas for Learning Journals which I am hoping to implement quite soon.

 

What I was wondering though, is how you print your photos for the learning journals. We have always taken lots and then uploaded them to order prints online. Now, we want to print them more often so we can keep the learning journals more up to date. It wouldn't be practical to order them online every week because it would take too long, cost too much in postage and mean a delay in getting them. We have thought about printing our own but the cost of ink puts us off. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Thanks for all your help so far.

[Guest]

We print onto printer paper. We print far too many to wait for them to arrive. We do use a lot of ink, but the profiles are a record for parents too.

[dublinbay]

My manager develops them at a machine in a supermarket over each weekend, ready for us to collect on a Monday. It is costly but she does get the chance to delete or not print duplicates or photos badly taken....if you get my drift. She reckons it's cheaper than printing them off ourselves.

[dottyp]

Hi karenlatoy - Firstly, welcome to the forum - a fantastic place to share early years info. You will find everyone really friendly and helpful

 

I always used upload our pre-school photo's on line and waited patiently for them to arrive through the letter box! However since Christmas, I set up my colour printer to 'credit card' size and print off pictures for the children's profiles. They are plenty big enough for this purpose and cuts down on both paper and ink. All my staff have given positive feed back and they get their photo's the following week they've taken them. I hope this suggestion helps

 

dottyp

[dublinbay]

Oh! Welcome from me too and congratulations on making your first post......may it be the first of many!

[Deb]

We print credit card sized photos onto printer paper too. Each keyperson prints their own each week.

[Guest]

First I upload the photos onto the pc, saving them into my own created Nursery Photos folder, then I 'edit' the photo selection and remove any that are duplicates (e.g. little Freddie playing with the sand on Monday and Tuesday!) or just blurry. Then I use the 'print selected photos' option and print them out as little wallet pictures - 9 to an A4 page. That way if there are 3 children in the photo I can print 3 of that photo - although I am a bit techy and can select specifically the ones I want multiples of and do it that way. So far I don't seem to have used too much ink - and have printed in excess of 200 photos, only just got the warning that one of the cartridges is nearly empty.

 

I find it the best option because I can choose the photo-size before printing, so if I wanted them all A4 I could do, or 35 to a sheet (maybe a wee bit small!) its very flexible and fairly easy to use.

 

Lucyhobbit

[Guest]

Hi! have you had a look at the thread on the Pogo printers?

 

I'm hooked on mine and think I've converted a few others, too!

 

Nona

[JacquieL]

Just wanted to say welcome karenlatoy and that we are looking forward to getting to know you.

[Inge]

too udsed to downlad to pC and then print them off directly onto A4 sized sticky labels instead of paper.. used an economy or normal print not best which was fine, and tended to put many onto a sheet , I found it easy to put them into a word document and then I could play with size , repeat pictures etc before printing...

 

We just had to cut them up and peel off backing to stick in journals.. easy..

 

We occasionally printed some onto photopaper, but bought this when on offer..

 

Didnt actually cost as much as sending off etc... but I am a bit PC savvy as to editing, sorting, sizing pictures etc.. so may not be for everyone...

 

Inge

[Guest]

I too have invested in a pogo printer after reading so many good reports.

So quick and easy

[Panders]

We do a couple of things - firstly when we take a photo, particularly if it is going with an observation, we write on the observation + photo - so we don't forget! I keep a lot of photos on the SD chips so that when I do go and print off, although I may print more than I want to, it does mean that I get them at a cheaper price per print in Boots because I print so many at one time. I actually only print off the photos every couple of weeks or so, but because we write on our observations where the photographs refer to it really doesn't present us with a problem that they aren't instant.

 

For a photo that is really "urgent", I have a small portable machine, but the price of prints is outrageous, or I do them on the computer much as other people above have suggested

[narnia]

we use a Kodak printer, as the cartridges are very cheap compared to others, the quality is good and it's easy to use

[karenlatoy]

Thanks for all your suggestions, it's given me lots to think about.

 

The pogo printer certainly looks like an option worth considering. Interestingly, when I went to the Pogo website to look at it, it looked strangely familiar and then I realised that my son got one of these for christmas! It's squirreled away in his room at the moment so hopefully I can get a free trial before deciding to buy one. Will let you know how I get on.

[Guest eagleeye]

Hi, we also print them wallet size and get 9 to a page. Occasionally we will print them 4 to a page for something really special. We have 2 different printers at school and we don't use the good one for our photos because we have so many to print each week!

[Buttercup]

i have a canon selphy printer. you put memory card from camera into machine. i fit 4 to a 6x4 print. £25 for 108 sheets and ink. costs about 20p for 4 prints. only downside cannot edit on printer. you could download onto computer first then put on memory stick then print. i find most of our pictures are fine for learning journals.

[fimbo]

we have a printer in our setting, print them off each week - 3 / 9 to a page, we use compatible ink carts as the price is so much cheaper and just print onto tecso value printer paper.

[dottyp]

... I like the idea of printing pics directly onto sticky labels but I have been trying to transfer pictures onto an A4 sheet of 14 labels without success Is there any 'quck' way of doing this without having to be to technically minded??

 

dottyp

[Inge]

trick when printing onto label paper is to buy A4 size label.... the whole sheet is 1 label...

 

then we just cut them out to use them.. meant we could have different sized pics on one page... used to buy mine in Staples or Viking but know other places have them - saved loads of time putting them into the books..

 

Inge

[Guest]

I download the photos each week onto the pre-school computer and then print out every weekend. We use stinky ink to buy our ink which works out at about £16 for the various coloured ink plus a black one. Photos are printed with date and time onto plain paper, up to 9 on an A4 sheet.

 

I have also added a bit to our prospectus to explain to parents how the camera and computer work, who has responsibility for them and who has access to the photos.

 

Debbie

[Guest]

i use a pogo. they are immediate 2"x3" prints (straight from digital camera or mobile phone via dongle) with a speel-off ticker on the back to stick straight in to journals. they are marvellous.

[Guest]

i use a pogo. they are immediate 2"x3" prints (straight from digital camera or mobile phone via dongle) with a speel-off ticker on the back to stick straight in to journals. they are marvellous.

that is, peel off sticker! my keyboard mouse pad is too sensitive and keeps jumping along by itself!

[karenlatoy]

Thanks so much for all your responses to this. It seems there is no one perfect way of looking at it and we each have to find what works best for us.

 

I've given my son's pogo a try and it does seem great, will give it a try at work this week. I'm thinking that maybe we could use a pogo for ongoing, weekly stuff but still get bulk photos printed elsewhere from bigger occasions like parties and christmas nativity etc.