Googley Poetry Projects and Tools

April is the time of year

For kids to write a poem.
There's loads of fun activities
Here for you to show 'em.

Google tools can be used
To make the perfect rhyme,
With templates, tools, and writing prompts
To save your students time.

Draggable Drawings, random Sheets,
And Google Docs highlighting
Will give your students inspiration
For their creative writing.

So look below to find out more,
Then get your students on it,
Writing their ode, haiku, free verse,
Their ballad or their sonnet.

4 Googley Halloween Learning Activities

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I already love the Fall with the change in temperature, beautiful leaves, and the smell of logs in our fireplace.

And Halloween is one of the high points. I love walking my grandkids around their neighborhood as we go trick-or-treating, and try my best not to eat too much of their candy.

Most years I even try to dress up for the occasion, although having a beard does somewhat limit my options. My go-to costume recently has been none other than Bob Ross!

Another favorite thing I have done is to create Halloween-themed educational activities with Google tools including:

🎃 Build a Jack-O-Lantern with Google Slides

👻 Halloween Rebus Stories with Emojis and Google Docs

🦇 Halloween Drag and Drop Poetry with Google Drawings

💀 Skittles and Google Sheets Math Activities


For convenience I decided to pull all of them together in one blog post. See below for details on each activity and links to the resources and templates.

Googley Poetry Projects and Tools

April is the time of year

For kids to write a poem.
There's loads of fun activities
Here for you to show 'em.

Google tools can be used
To make the perfect rhyme,
With templates, tools, and writing prompts
To save your students time.

Draggable Drawings, random Sheets,
And Google Docs highlighting
Will give your students inspiration
For their creative writing.

So look below to find out more,
Then get your students on it,
Writing their ode, haiku, free verse,
Their ballad or their sonnet.

Googley Valentine Activities

With Valentine's Day coming up, this is a great time to highlight some activities I really love! In this case I am talking about technology activities for students that tie into the holiday theme while also promoting creativity, math, and writing.

I this blog post I will be sharing four Valentine-themed projects that use Google tools. Each of these are ideas I have shared in the past, but I thought it would be helpful to bring them all together in one place.

• 📊 Hearts and Charts Google Sheets Math Activities
• 😍 Valentine Emoji Rebus Stories in Google Docs
• 🧲 Valentine Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings
• 💌 Valentine Cards with Google Drawings

Hopefully you find all of them to be fun ways to engage your students, while working on practical skills.

See below for a description of each activity, access to all the templates, and links to the original blog posts for the projects I am re-sharing. Hope you love them!

8 Googley Wintertime Activities for Kids

As we get closer to the holiday break, it is expected and understandable that our students start getting a little distracted. They are looking forward to lots of days off, holiday celebrations, gifts, and more. Let's be honest … we may be a little distracted as well.

 
This is a time of year when we look for some fun activities to keep our students focused and active. But we don't just want busy work. If possible it is great to find projects that are fun, tie into wintertime themes, and still provide our students with a chance to be creative, write, or improve some content area skills.

To help out with that, I have put together eight wintertime-themed activities that use free Google tools, including Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings:

⛄ Activity #1 - Build a Snowman with Google Slides

🎄 Activity #2 - Decorate a Holiday Tree with Google Slides

🧲 Activity #3 - Wintertime Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings

📬 Activity #4 - Holiday Greeting Cards with Google Drawings

🎁 Activity #5 - "12 Days of Christmas" Guided Google Sheets Math Activity

🌟 Activity #6 - Pixel Art Ornaments with Google Sheets

❄️ Activity #7 - Wintertime Emoji Rebus Stories with Google Docs

💡 Activity #8 - Holiday Lights Writing with Google Docs

Some of these are projects I have shared in the past, while others are new twists on previous posts. Hopefully some of these will be a good match for your students to keep them busy AND learning as we head into the holidays.

National Poetry Month Competition and Resources

April is the time of year

For kids to write a poem.

There's loads of fun activities
Here for you to show 'em.

Technology can be used
To make the perfect rhyme,
With templates, tools, and writing prompts
To save your students time.

Draggable Drawings, random Sheets,
And Google Docs highlighting
Will give your students inspiration
For their creative writing.

So look below to find out more,
Then get your students on it,
Writing their ode, haiku, free verse,
Their ballad or their sonnet.

Google Slides Photo Words - Advanced Webinar

I recently shared my blog post and tutorial video about creating "Photo Words" with Google Slides. This is a fun activity for students to take any word and put an image inside of the word.

This engaging project can allow student to:

• Visualize any vocabulary word
• Create a "One Word" for the year
• Summarize a story
• Learn a new word (in their language or other)
• Represent a location
• Tell about themselves
• Recap a year
• Make a logo
• And so much more!

My original blog post and 16-minute tutorial video were designed to help you and your students learn the basics of this activity, but there was so much more that I couldn't cover in the short introductory video.

To help with this I did a 90-minute live-stream webinar where we did a deep dive into creating Photo Words. In the video I go step-by-step through the process of creating four different advanced designs.

See below to access the recorded webinar video, as well as other support resources from the training. And again, I would love to see what you and your students create!

8 Googley Wintertime Activities for Kids

As we get closer to the holiday break, it is expected and understandable that our students start getting a little distracted. They are looking forward to lots of days off, holiday celebrations, gifts, and more. Let's be honest … we may be a little distracted as well.

 
This is a time of year when we look for some fun activities to keep our students focused and active. But we don't just want busy work. If possible it is great to find projects that are fun, tie into wintertime themes, and still provide our students with a chance to be creative, write, or improve some content area skills.

To help out with that, I have put together eight wintertime-themed activities that use free Google tools, including Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings:

⛄ Activity #1 - Build a Snowman with Google Slides

🎄 Activity #2 - Decorate a Holiday Tree with Google Slides

🧲 Activity #3 - Wintertime Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings

📬 Activity #4 - Holiday Greeting Cards with Google Drawings

🎁 Activity #5 - "12 Days of Christmas" Guided Google Sheets Math Activity

🌟 Activity #6 - Pixel Art Ornaments with Google Sheets

❄️ Activity #7 - Wintertime Emoji Rebus Stories with Google Docs

💡 Activity #8 - Holiday Lights Writing with Google Docs

Some of these are projects I have shared in the past, while others are new twists on previous posts. Hopefully some of these will be a good match for your students to keep them busy AND learning as we head into the holidays.

Eye Chart Templates and Activities with Google Tools

In 1862 the Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen developed an eye chart to help measure a person's vision, which we now call the Snellen Chart.

At some point you have certainly seen this tool, or in my case "tried" to see it, as I have always been significantly near-sighted.

One area of my life where I try to not be near-sighted is keeping an eye out for creative ideas on using technology in the classroom. Recently when learning more about the Snellen Chart, I thought that it could make for an interesting template for student learning activities.

See below to get your own copies of the eye chart templates I created for Google Slides and Google Drawings, along with a short tutorial video and written directions. Also check out some of the ideas I brainstormed for possible activities with this template. I would love to hear your ideas for other ways this could be used.

4 Googley Halloween Activities

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I already love the Fall with the change in temperature, beautiful leaves, and the smell of logs in our fireplace.

And Halloween is one of the high points. I love walking my grandkids around their neighborhood as we go trick-or-treating, and try my best not to eat too much of their candy.

Most years I even try to dress up for the occasion, although having a beard does somewhat limit my options. My go-to costume recently has been none other than Bob Ross!

Another favorite thing I have done is to create Halloween-themed educational activities with Google tools including:

🎃 Build a Jack-O-Lantern with Google Slides

👻 Halloween Rebus Stories with Emojis and Google Docs

🦇 Halloween Drag and Drop Poetry with Google Drawings

💀 Skittles and Google Sheets Math Activities


For convenience I decided to pull all of them together in one blog post. See below for details on each activity and links to the resources and templates.

8 Googley Wintertime Activities for Kids

[Updated as of December 2022]

As we get closer to the holiday break, it is expected and understandable that our students start getting a little distracted. They are looking forward to lots of days off, holiday celebrations, gifts, and more. Let's be honest … we may be a little distracted as well.

 
This is a time of year when we look for some fun activities to keep our students focused and active. But we don't just want busy work. If possible it is great to find projects that are fun, tie into wintertime themes, and still provide our students with a chance to be creative, write, or improve some content area skills.

To help out with that, I have put together eight wintertime-themed activities that use free Google tools, including Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings:

⛄ Activity #1 - Build a Snowman with Google Slides

🎄 Activity #2 - Decorate a Holiday Tree with Google Slides

🧲 Activity #3 - Wintertime Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings

📬 Activity #4 - Holiday Greeting Cards with Google Drawings

🎁 Activity #5 - "12 Days of Christmas" Guided Google Sheets Math Activity

🌟 Activity #6 - Pixel Art Ornaments with Google Sheets

❄️ Activity #7 - Wintertime Emoji Rebus Stories with Google Docs

💡 Activity #8 - Holiday Lights Writing with Google Docs

Some of these are projects I have shared in the past, while others are new twists on previous posts. Hopefully some of these will be a good match for your students to keep them busy AND learning as we head into the holidays.

Halloween Drag and Drop Poetry with Google Drawings

Magnetic poetry kits have been around for decades, providing children and adults with inspiration to create poems on refrigerators everywhere.

As fun as those magnetic kits are, they have some limitations. By using a technology option, such as Google Drawings, you get many benefits:

• No limit on the quantity of words provided. Just copy and paste more of them as needed.
• Great tech skills practice with dragging and dropping and copying and pasting.
• Ability to edit the words provided if needed.
• Ability to add your own words.
• Easy collaboration with others.
• Easy to share or download your final creation.
• No pieces to get lost.
• It’s free!

In the past I have shared Google Drawing templates for students to create drag-and-drop "magnetic" poetry with a winter theme, Valentine's theme, and Spring theme. This time I have created one for Halloween.

See below to get your free copy of the Halloween Poetry template to use with your students (or yourself) however you want, as well as a video and directions on how to use it.

10 Googley Poetry Projects for National Poetry Month

April is the time of year

For kids to write a poem.
There's loads of fun activities
Here for you to show 'em.

Google tools can be used
To make the perfect rhyme,
With templates, tools, and writing prompts
To save your students time.

Draggable Drawings, random Sheets,
And Google Docs highlighting
Will give your students inspiration
For their creative writing.

So look below to find out more,
Then get your students on it,
Writing their ode, haiku, free verse,
Their ballad or their sonnet.

Play the "Royal Game of Ur" with Google Slides and Drawings

As I have mentioned before, I am a big fan of board games and card games and dice games and most any game. They are a great way for people to connect, as well as build critical thinking skills.

In addition to playing games, I enjoy making digital versions of games, such as checkers and chess and backgammon and battleship. These digital versions allow people to play the games remotely or in person, and you don't have to worry about losing pieces under the couch.

My most recent game template is for "The Royal Game of Ur" which was first played in ancient Mesopotamia about 4,500 years ago. In this game two opponents use both strategy and luck to try to move their pieces off the board first. In addition to critical thinking skills, this game also ties in nicely with probabilities in math and with exploring the history of when the game was played.

See below for links to templates so you can get your own copies, as well as a short video and written directions on how to use the templates.

New Online Video Course - Canvases for Design: Google Drawings and Jamboard

I am excited to announce a new online video course that I have created through Kiker Learning, called "Canvases for Design: Google Drawings and Jamboard"!

This course covers how you and your students can create, design, diagram, brainstorm, collaborate with others, and more, using Google Drawings and Jamboard.

In this course we take a look at both of these tools and learn all about the features they provide. Then we explore exciting projects that our students can complete with these tools including: graphic organizers, desktop publishing, interactive images, green screen images, math activities, and much much more.

See below for all the details on the course and how it can be accessed.

Play Backgammon with Google Slides and Drawings

So I am a big fan of tabletop games, as my bookcase full of games will show. They are a great way for people to connect, as well as build critical thinking skills. Although I mostly play newer games, I still love some classics such as backgammon.

Recently I created a backgammon template in Google Slides and Google Drawings that anyone can use to play the game in person or remotely with a partner.

See below for links to templates so you can get your own copies, as well as a short video and written directions on how to use the templates.

Googley Wintertime Activities for Kids

[Updated as of December 2022]

As we get closer to the holiday break, it is expected and understandable that our students start getting a little distracted. They are looking forward to lots of days off, holiday celebrations, gifts, and more. Let's be honest … we may be a little distracted as well.

 
This is a time of year when we look for some fun activities to keep our students focused and active. But we don't just want busy work. If possible it is great to find projects that are fun, tie into wintertime themes, and still provide our students with a chance to be creative, write, or improve some content area skills.

To help out with that, I have put together eight wintertime-themed activities that use free Google tools, including Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drawings:

⛄ Activity #1 - Build a Snowman with Google Slides

🎄 Activity #2 - Decorate a Holiday Tree with Google Slides

🧲 Activity #3 - Wintertime Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings

📬 Activity #4 - Holiday Greeting Cards with Google Drawings

🎁 Activity #5 - "12 Days of Christmas" Guided Google Sheets Math Activity

🌟 Activity #6 - Pixel Art Ornaments with Google Sheets

❄️ Activity #7 - Wintertime Emoji Rebus Stories with Google Docs

💡 Activity #8 - Holiday Lights Writing with Google Docs

Some of these are projects I have shared in the past, while others are new twists on previous posts. Hopefully some of these will be a good match for your students to keep them busy AND learning as we head into the holidays.

Background Removal Tools and Activities

Last year I shared a post on finding, creating, and using transparent images in education, such as having students cut themselves out of a picture and them put themselves into a new image.

Since then, we have seen lots of new tools pop up that make the process so much easier for removing the background of an image. So I figured it was time to revisit this topic, explore the new tools, and expand on the ideas for how students can use these in school.

The big reason for these new tools is the growth and improvement in artificial intelligence. In the past, if you wanted to remove the background from an image, it was a very manual process where you would select and delete portions of the image bit by bit. Now with machine learning, most or all of the heavy lifting can be done by the computer as it is getting so much better at identifying separate items in an image. It's like "green screen" without the actual green screen.

In this post we will look at some new tools, as well as review some classic options that still have their place, and then explore fun and engaging projects students can do. As we look at the tools we will start with the most easy to use and then move to those that require more input from the user, but also give more control.

10 Writing Prompt Tools for Creative Inspiration

I love writing… blog posts, stories, poems, and more. As much as I love it though, writing can be a challenge. Often one of the most difficult parts is just getting started. Sometimes we just need a little inspiration, a jump start to get us thinking down a new path.

When my daughter was younger we used to do poetry nights where we would use a website (Watch Out for Snakes) that would randomly create titles for us by putting together adjectives and nouns. We would then challenge each other to write a poem based on one of the prompts, followed by reading our new creations. Yes, I have always been a nerd.

Just like those random titles inspired me to compose poems, such tools can help our students when they need to write a journal entry, short story, essay, article, poem, or such. Thankfully there are many resources available to use for writing prompts, story starters, and other writing inspiration. In this blog post we will take a look at 10 example tools to use in your class.

By the way, if you are interested to see some examples of what came out of my poetry nights, feel free to check out Elemental Love, Moonstruck Conifer, and Smallest Pony.

Create Your Own Story Cubes with Google Drawings

Story cubes have long been a popular item to give inspiration for writing. Typically they are regular cubes with a different picture or word on each face. Students can pick a few cubes and then roll them to randomly get elements for a story.

Although you can certainly buy these cubes, you can also make you own. Better yet, students can each make several story cubes and then you will have dozens and dozens to use from your class.

One easy way to make your own story cubes is to use Google Drawings with pictures, emojis, or text. See below to get copies of my Google Drawings Story Cube templates, along with detailed directions on how you and your students can make these.