Digital Lessons are here to stay. There is so much content that can be taught and practiced using Google Slides, Docs, Forms, and Sheets. Do your students know how to drag and drop items on a Google Slide? Can they fill in shapes with color using the “Fill Color” Feature? How skilled are they in inserting shapes, textboxes, and changing font sizes and colors? Can they insert an image they find online, and shape it to fit, or us the line tool to add a line or arrow? What about finding special characters such as a division symbol or degree sign? These are all skills students need to be successful with digital lessons in Google.
If you plan on teaching with Google Slides, take some time at the beginning of the school year to practice before assigning content.
Google Slides Tips:
Inserting a Shape – Click on “Insert” and scroll down to “Shapes”. From the extended arrow you can find all types of arrows, talking bubbles, triangles, cylinders, circles, and more. To color in a shape, click in the shape and go up to the “Fill Color” bucket icon. You can choose any color, or create a custom color from the drop down palette. To add a colored border to your shape, click in the shape, and go up to the “Border Color” icon. Next to it you will see an icon with 3 horizontal lines. Click on this to choose the thickness of your border. To duplicate a shape, click on it and enter “Control” “D” on the keyboard. Click it repeatedly to add several of the same shape.
Insert an Image – Click on the slide in which you wish to insert an image. Go up to “Insert” and scroll down to “Image”. There are several ways to insert an image. To choose one from the internet, click on “Search the Web”. A box will pop up on the right side of your screen with a search bar. Type in any the name of any image you want. (If you type “transparent” in front of the name, you will get an image that doesn’t bring background you don’t want.) Several images will be available to you. Scroll down and click on the image you want. Then click on “Insert”. It will bring the image into your Google Slide. From there you can click and hold on the corners of your image and move your cursor toward the center of the image. It will decrease the size until you have what you want. Click on the small circle at the top of your image and you can tilt it either left or right.
Add Text – Click in your Google Slide. Then go up to an icon that looks like a “T” inside a box. Click on it and then click again in the slide. Click and hold on the border of the text box until you see a symbol with 4 arrows going in each direction. You can then move the text box anywhere you like on the slide. Click in the text box until you see a flashing cursor. Go up and click on the dropdown arrow for the font you want. Next to that will be size of your font, and a choice of Bold or Italics. To the right of that you can choose a border color for your text box or leave it transparent. You can also use the “Fill Color” feature to color in your text box. You can change the color of your type by clicking on the letter “A”. Start typing. Any time you want to change a feature of your type, click and hold in front of your first letter of type, and move the cursor to highlight as much as you want to change. When it’s highlighted, you can change color, font, font size, etc.
Insert a Table – Click in your Google Slide. Click “Insert” and scroll down to Table. From the arrow on the right, you can choose the size of your table. After it shows on your slide, you can move it anywhere you like on the slide by clicking and holding on the edge of the table. Highlight the entire table by clicking in one of the boxes, holding and highlighting the entire table. From here you can change the location of the type in each box, and change the font, font size and color. You can also fill in the boxes with a color, or add a border.
Add Special Characters – Click on “Insert” and scroll down to “Special Characters”. A box will pop up on the right side. You can find a symbol you want, or type what you want in the search bar. To find a division symbol, type “division”. To find a multiplication dot, type “dot”. There are many possibilities here.
Once you know the basics of using Google Slides, you can play around with the features and find more possibilities such as inserting a video or audio. Although the other Google Docs, Forms, Sheets, etc. that are available, do not have as many features, they can also be use for collecting information, creating a document, or using the digital whiteboard called “Jamboard”. Click on “New” from your Google Drive to find these other possibilities.
Use a Google Lesson for Student Practice –
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Practice-Google-Digital-Skills-6943692