Google Slides
One of the best things to come out of the move to online learning is the experience I’ve gained teaching with Google Slides. One of Google’s best platforms, Slides offers the greatest variety of digital tools you can use to create lessons for your students. And as a result, your own students will become more proficient at learning digitally.
Digital Skills Students can Learn
Students can show their answers to a question using the “fill color” feature, highlight answers, create lines to match problems to their solutions, drag and drop vocabulary and other key terms into a sentence frame, and move red and yellow integer chips on a slide to show addition and subtraction of positive and negative numbers. Google Slides can take learning any subject to a fun, new level.
Digital Integer Chips
Some of the best sellers in my Teachers Pay Teachers or Amped up Learning stores, are my lessons with red and yellow integer chips. My students have helped me perfect these lessons by giving me valuable feedback on how they work. The first in a series of 4 lessons is my lesson on adding integers. Students line up the yellow (positive) chips and red (negative) chips and then remove zero pairs to come up with their solution. I have lessons that also teach subtracting, multiplying, and dividing with these colorful chips.
Create your Own Lessons
You can create these types of lessons yourself by creating a template of your lesson on a google slide, and then downloading as a PNG image. (Click on “file” “download” “PNG image”) This gives you an immovable background so that the only thing that moves are the pieces you wish to be moveable by the students. Insert that image as a background and it will not move. Once that is in place, you can add your moveable pieces. Click “insert” scroll down to “shapes” and choose the shape you wish to use. I use circles for my integer and number chips, and rectangles for my sentence frames. You can use the “fill color” feature to create any color for your shape, or just color your border and change the thickness of the border. I’ve seen other sellers use different shapes to create digital jigsaw puzzles. Now students can just click and hold on the border of the shape and move it around the slide.
Divide Fractions using Bar Models
The integer chip lessons are a valuable tool to teach students about integers conceptually before they learn the rules. Another lesson I created for my students that teaches conceptually, uses the “fill color” feature to divide fractions with fraction bars. Students can choose any color they like to fill in the correct number of sections in their fraction bar. They can then see the fractions visually and understand what it means to divide them. (It’s often hard to explain why you can divide fractions and get a whole number answer.) They have a much better understanding after completing this visual lesson.
Integer Slide Game
The absolute favorite of all of my digital lessons, and the most difficult to create, is my Integer Slide Game. It’s created by linking slides to each other, so that students move in the game according to correct or incorrect answers. This game can be created for any subject. Used in “Present” mode, it works wonderfully as an fun, interactive review. I’ve used my holiday clip art to create different versions for 7 different holidays. Each one contains new problems so students can review the use of positive and negative numbers throughout the school year. I learned this one watching a Youtube video from another TPT author. I can send the details to anyone who is interested in creating their own. (Go to the Home page and Click on “Need Something Specific?“. Request the directions for creating the Slide Game. Directions are FREE.)
Many Options with Google Slides!
I’ve also created digital multiplication charts, 100’s charts, box puzzles, palindromes, sticky note exit tickets, and a fun Back to School activity for students to create their own Bitmoji type rooms. Let me know what lessons you would like to learn to create. I can send details to help you through the process. If you’d like me to create a particular lesson to match your curriculum, just click on the “Need something Specific?” tab on the home page. I’d be happy to create it for you for math, social studies, language arts or any other subject area.
You can learn all of these skills using Google Slides. Good Luck Creating!