Google Drawing Suggestions

Kasey Bell  (from ShakeUpLearning) recently shared a blog post with several ideas for Google Drawings.  From graphic organizers to vision boards, you might find something for your students.  Please see her blog post here.

Slides, Drawings, or Jamboard?

Jen Hall recently presented at a Google Educator Group and shared this presentation on slides, drawings, or Jamboard.  As she says, it depends on the goal- what do you want students to do?  This blog post includes an informative video as well as an infographic to help you make your choice.

Using Google drawing in Docs

Sarah Keifer shared her directions for inserting a Google Drawing in a Google Doc.  Her video is here. If you didn’t want to use Kami to annotate a PDF, this might be an option for you.

Creating moveable drawings (in a Doc)

Jonathan Frye recently shared this blog post on how to create moveable drawings within a Google Doc.  Please see his post here.

Would you like to draw a snowflake?

Lauren Conti has a great video that will walk you through the steps.

Learning Google Drawing Tools

I am thankful for this video by Lauren Conti- in it, she walks you through the Google Drawing tools to create this cute turkey.  Perhaps you could have your students try on their own before sharing the video.

Guess Who (The Presidents Day Edition)

This is a guest post from Caileigh Fazzini (SMS).

Today my students engaged in a President's Day Guess Who game.

I created the Guess Who using a template from The Techie Teacher  

I transferred the template to Google Drawing so my students could use a

red x to cross out the presidents that did not fit the description.  

I shared the Drawing with my students and sat them near a partner. Each

partner copy and pasted a president in the top right corner of the drawing.

That was their chosen president. They played Guess Who with the red xs to

eliminate the options that could not be their opponents president.

Students were able to use physical descriptions such as black and white,

tie colors, hair styles, etc.

For older students, they can guess achievements/failures of the presidents.

My students had a lot of fun trying to figure out their partner's choice

and said they learned a few new presidents that they have not heard of previously.

Students on a Google Slide

Interested in having your students create an infographic yet need a place to start?  How about using this Google Slide? It contains step by step directions for the students.  And the topic? Something they know best- themselves! Please click here and then make a copy.

April and Poetry- Perfect Together

Eric Curts is one my favorite Google Experts- and his magnetic Google Drawing templates are always fascinating.  Here is his April Spring Poetry effort. You can read about it here (and it includes the template for you to share with your students).

Google Drawing Ideas

Richard Byrne has a list of 7 ideas with Google Drawings.  I will admit it is a Google tool I don’t use enough. Maybe my next project...

Use Google Drawings with links

While I have not been a huge Thinglink user (a site that allows you to add links to images), I was interested  in the changes they have made.  According to Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers in his post here), there are changes in student access and he suggests using Google Drawings as a replacement. There is a short YouTube video (below) that will walk you through the process.He also shared a link to additional ways to use Google Drawings in class. You can then have them share their work in classroom.

Just as a note- if they download their drawing as a picture file, the links will not appear.

Creating comics in Google

Ever wanted to create comics in a Google product but you are not sure where to start?  This blog post (from Matt Miller and Cori Orlando) will provide all the guidance you need to get started and succeed!  Use Google Drawing or Slides- either will work with comics (they also share their own template).

Instead of Copy and Paste

Think of using the duplicate function (Control D).  In her blog post, Alice Keeler provides directions as well as practical suggestions for Google Drawing applications.

Now the images are back in the sidebar

When Google was first rolled out in the district, some folks might remember there was a search option that added photos to the sidebar.  A few version later, this was gone.  But now it is back.  Click (in docs, drawings or slides) on Insert- Images- and a drop-down menu will appear.  Select search, and the search bar will appear and your images down the side (please see my screenshot below).

Another way to use Google Drawings and Slides

Matt Miller (from Ditch that Textbook fame) has shared great step by step directions to create digital activity sheets using slides/drawings.  Here’s a sample (and he does have ones you can copy or create your own).

Please click here to see his post.

Connect 4 (via Google)

Alice Keeler recently posted an interesting post on using Google Drawing (and a sharing technique).  This might be an interesting project when June rolls around.  Please click here to see her directions and suggestions.

Valentine’s Day Poetry

Eric Curts (you may remember him from the snowman and the winter poems) has created a Google Drawing for Valentine’s Day.  You can read his blog post here (and you will be able to make a copy of the Google Drawing).

So what does you snowman say?

Eric Curts has shared an magnetic poetry geared for the winter season.  Please click here to download the the Google drawing (and then click here for the through step by step directions.) I’ve shared by sample.

Thanks to Eric as well as Wanda Terral who shared it on Facebook.

So what’s the real message?

Kathy James and her students have been exploring the role of media literacy (especially propaganda) while reading Animal Farm.  As they created their own products, they used Google Drawing to produce their original advertisements.  Here are two samples of their work. I think this is a creative use of Drawing- a tool that many folks do not use.

Annotating a picture!

Here's another way to have your students show what they know!  Have them use a Google drawing and let them annotate with boxes and arrows!  For younger students, you could create a template and how them move the boxes to show their understanding.  On Friday, I tried this with a third grade class (I created a drawing, added the boxes, and then made a copy for them in Google Classroom).  I worked well- the students were able to drag the boxes and label the image.
For more ideas on using Google drawings, please see the blog post here from Paul Gaffney.