Activities, My Classroom

End of the Year Class Photo: Pandemic Style

I was so sad when I realized I wasn’t going to be able to get a last day of school picture with my students this year. I have framed pictures of each class that I have taught and I have hang them on my classroom wall for students to see and for me to admire. There is always something about pictures that makes a classroom feel more like home.

I came across a trend that has been circulating around social media about the idea of a Bitmoji class. Teachers have been using Google Slides and the app Bitmoji to create custom portraits of their students. So what did I do? …. I hopped on and made my own!

The last day of school class photo for the 2019-2020 school year.

How do I make my own?

Follow these steps:

1.Go to Google Slides, PowerPoint, Canva, or any other platform that you feel comfortable using. 

Format the size of your template to your liking.

2. Select a background by looking up wall floors clipart. Place the image as the background of your template.

Google Search “Wall Floor Clipart” for your photo background.

3. Download the Bitmoji app on your phone, create an account using an email, and you are ready to go.

There are so many ways to customize each of your avatars.

4. The app will first ask if you want to create a boy or a girl avatar. Once selected, you will get to customize the hair, facial features, clothes, body type, and much more. I suggest you make each avatar simple because you are going to be making one for each of your students and it is time consuming. Once finished make sure to click “Save”.

5. Click the “Stickers” tab on the bottom of the app and type in “phot” in the search bar. Smiling posing avatars will appear for the first 13 options.  Note: Do not type in “photo” because the stickers that you need will disappear.

Here are example of the stickers that you want to look for.

6. Click the avatar pose you wish to use and either save the image to your photos or email the avatar to yourself. I saved all of my avatars to my phone first before emailing them. Less steps I had to take.

7. You will need to repeat these steps for each avatar. Click the settings button (cog wheel in the top right corner) and click My Account. Click “Reset Avatar” to create a new student.

8. Once you have created all of your students, including yourself, email all the photos to an email and download them onto your computer. Creating a file on your desktop is helpful when you need to access the picture fast and easily.

9.Each avatar comes with a white background. You will need to remove the white background so your class photo is seamless. I suggest using remove.bg. It is very fast, easy, and simple to use.

Upload the image and then click download.

10. Once you have uploaded your avatar, click the blue download button. I created a new folder on my desktop to store my avatars without a background.

11. Start importing each avatar into your template. I made sure to make my avatar a little bigger than the others for a more realistic photo. Organize your students, include extra elements, and you’re done!

Tips: You can Google Search extra elements to be included in your Bitmoji class photo. I have a bleachers clipart that I included in my photo. You can also include other elements such as a white board, banners, transparent window, or text to make your Bitmoji class photo unique. It took me about 5 hours to get everything how I liked so make sure you set aside some time if you want to do this.

Have fun!!