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Create a Digital Book with Google Slides

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Create a Digital Book with Google Slides

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You likely are familiar with Google Slides. But did you know you can use it to make a digital book?

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Have students use Google Slides to create and publish their own ebooks! Works especially well for research books and other nonfiction pieces. Learn how to create a book with Google Slides and how to share it with others during a paperless writing celebration.

Create and share digital books in the classroom with Google Slides

As much as I write about iPad apps, I'm a huge Google user in and out of the classroom. I own a Chromebook and use the Google Apps such as Drive, Slides, Docs, Sheets, and Forms all the time.

In fact, many of the projects we do with iPads would not be possible without Google Drive to easily upload our finished images or videos easily into one place.

How to use Google Slides to make digital books

Another Google project we do that works seamlessly with iPads is to create digital books on Google Slides then create a QR code using the share URL so that students can scan the QR code and read each other's stories quickly. They can also just open the free Google Slides app and do the same but who doesn't love a QR code - plus by hanging our QR codes in the hall we can share our stories with the school.

That could sound complicated to those of you still beginning your tech journey so I will show you step by step how this works.

Create a Google Account

First you will need a Google Account - either a free classroom Google account that you share with your students or students can use their own log-in if your district assigns those via GAFE.

Next have students open Google Drive and click the read create button and select "Slides." They need to name their book. You can also have students go directly to Google Slides and log in from there too or assign them a blank slideshow through Google Classroom.

Set up the pages of the book

I tell students that each individual slide is 1 page of their book. The first slide will be their cover. If you are making a nonfiction text, you can have a slide for the table of contents too.

One of the reasons we use Slides is that Slides gives students the ability to click and drag their text and images anywhere on the page which allows for a variety of page layouts and makes the books look "real" when being read digitally.

Slides, like all of the Google Apps, autosaves, which is AMAZING because somehow elementary students will figure out how to delete theirwhole story multiple times as well as delete other people's stories and wipe-out the entire My Documents folder if using Microsoft Word in the span of 5 minutes.

How to edit each "page" or slide in the book

Since each slide is one page, students will need to add text via text boxes which are opened by clicking the T in the ribbon. Students will also need to click somewhere on the slide to insert their text box before typing.

Similar to Microsoft Word or Pages, you can edit the text using options available in the ribbon. My students like to change the background color of the text box and add borders. This is especially effective when creating a nonfiction book since they may have various captions, fact boxes, and headings on the page.

Students can also change the shape of the text box so they can easy align text on one half of the page and have images on the other half for example.

Adding images to digital books on Google Slides

The best part of using a Google App is you have built-in Google image search. Students click the image button (the mountain) and select "Search." They simply type in their search term and images pop up.

For elementary students, you will want to make sure you have Safe Search turned on in Chrome - most districts do this automatically. To check, I always do a test run by myself where I type in something inappropriate and see what comes up. Even with Safe Search, I do not allow my students to scroll or go to a second page of results just in case.

Using the real images comes in handy when writing nonfiction, but also adds a lot of interest to fiction pieces as well. Students can layer as many images as they want onto their pages.

Finishing touches and saving digital books made on Google Slides

There are many options for sharing finished stories. Students can click the File to open a drop down menu. From there they can print their stories or save as a .pdf for easy digital sharing.

If student books do not give out personal information and students use an avatar name, I allow them to Publish them to the web so they become searchable and public. Publishing is also helpful if students have blogs as they can select to get an embed code.

Making QR codes to share digital books on Google Slides

But you can go one step further and create your own digital reading library on the iPad made up of student stories by making QR codes. First students open the File Menu and select share. From there they click "Get link." The link in blue is the URL you will need to copy.

Paste that URL into the window on www.qrstuff.com then click download QR code (on the right under the code that generates). Print out the code. When scanned with an iPad, the book automatically opens in Slideshow mode - with each page taking up the full screen.

Students will swipe to turn the page - just like a real digital book!

I have had students make their QR codes or I use my quick entry workflow that you can read about { here} to do a class set in minutes. In fact, the main image on that blog post shows our QR codes that link to Google Slides' stories!

I have also used this same method to create my own stories - whether social stories for students who need them or stories with our vocabulary and spelling words in them for practice.

Student work samples of digital books on Google Slides

Check out a couple of finished student stories. These are both from our nonfiction unit and students also added images they made in PicCollage and Popplet:

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Have students use Google Slides to create and publish their own ebooks! Works especially well for research books and other nonfiction pieces. Learn how to create a book with Google Slides and how to share it with others during a paperless writing celebration.

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This tool enables you to create a comic strip styled storyboard to represent your panel discussion. Be sure to use the "basic" version, which is free.

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Create your own animation in Google Slides! This link will show you how.

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I have always been a giant fan of stop motion animation. As a child I grew up on "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Year Without a Santa Claus". In more recent years I have enjoyed "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Fantastic Mr. Fox", and "Kubo and the Two Strings".

As much as I enjoy watching stop motion movies, it can also be fun to create your own. With technology there are many programs and apps to make the process much easier, so that anyone can make a stop motion animation.

One easy tool to use for this is Google Slides. Many times we think of Slides as just a program for creating multimedia presentations. However, with just a few tricks you and your students can actually use Google Slides to make stop motion movies.

This can be a creative and fun way to:

Tell a new story

Retell a story read in class

Reenact a historical event

Demonstrate a scientific concept

Explain how to solve a math problem

Define a vocabulary term

And much more

See below for examples of stop motion animations with Google Slides, as well as detailed directions on how to make your own.

Stop Motion Examples

For this blog post, I created two examples of animation with Google Slides. One uses the more traditional approach of combining photographs, while the other uses shapes and text.

Example #1 - Vocabulary Term: "Identical"

For my first example I used stop motion to define a vocabulary term, in this case the word "identical". To do this I used Lego's to act out a scene (my own "Lego Movie"!). You can view the final product by clicking below:

Example #2 - Area of an Irregular Shape

For my second example I animated shapes and text and teach how to calculate the area of an irregular shape. No traditional photographs were used for this example. To see the animation, click the link below:

Below are the basic steps for creating your own Google Slides stop motion animation. We will look at most of the steps in more detail further down in the blog post.

1. Create your Google Slideshow as normal.

2. As needed, insert images by taking a snapshot with your webcam.

3. As needed, insert shapes, text, and other items.

4. To save time, make copies of slides and make small changes to the items on the slide to simulate movement.

5. To make certain slides last longer, make multiple copies of the slide.

6. When done, use "Publish to the web" option to get playable link for your slideshow.

7. Adjust the "Publish to the web" link to shorten the time between the slides to make them appear animated.

8. Share the link with others to view!

If you are not familiar with the basics of using Google Slides, you can learn more with the help guide below:

Inserting Images

If you want to go with the traditional approach for stop motion animation, you will want to insert photos into your slideshow. Certainly these images can be taken with digital cameras, phones or such, but you can save a lot of time by simply using a webcam built into or connected to your laptop, Chromebook, or computer. Google Slides has a handy option that lets you insert images directly from your webcam.

Click "Insert" in the top menu bar.

Choose "Image" from the drop-down menu.

On the "Insert Image" screen, choose the "Take a snapshot" tab.

If you have not used your webcam in Slides before you will need to give permissions to access the webcam.

Click "Take snapshot" when ready, and then click "Select" to insert the photo into the current slide.

As needed, you can resize the photo to fill the slide.

In between photos, you will now want to make small changes to your scene. This could include moving your lego characters, clay models, action figures, or such. If needed, you can also move your webcam to zoom in, zoom out, or move around the scene.

Keep repeating this process to make all the slides you need to make your movie.

For my lego movie I used the Ipevo Point 2 View camera. It is a very affordable USB camera than can be connected to laptops, Chromebooks, and computers, and is easy to adjust the height and angle. Of course you can just use a built-in webcam as well, but an external camera can make movement a bit easier.

Inserting Other Items

Instead of using photos, you can also create stop motion animations by simply inserting and moving clipart, shapes, text boxes, and such. Or you can combine these items with your photos by inserting them on top of your pictures.

Insert items by clicking the "Insert" menu then choosing "Shape", "Textbox", "Line", "Wordart", or such.

When done, make a copy of the slide by clicking "Slide" then "Duplicate slide".

Now click on the items you inserted and make small changes to them to make it look like they have moved between slides.

This could include moving the item, rotating the items, or resizing the item to make it bigger or smaller.

Tech Tip: To move items you can simply drag and drop, but if you want more precise control use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move in small steps, or hold down the " Shift" keys while pressing the arrow keys to move one pixel at a time.

Tech Tip: You can rotate items by dragging the circle that sticks out from the top of the item, but if you want more precise control you can press " Alt" and the arrows keys to rotate 15 degrees at a time, or " Shift" and " Alt" and the arrow keys to move 1 degree at a time.

Keep repeating this process to make all the slides you need for your animation.

Making Slides Last Longer

When your slideshow runs, each slide will last the same amount of time. However, sometimes you may want your movie to linger on a certain scene for a longer time. Although you can't make a specific slide last longer, you can make it look like it does. The way to do this is to make multiple copies of the slide, without making any changes to it, so it looks like the scene is lasting longer.

Select the slide you want to last longer.

Make a copy of the slide by clicking "Slide" and "Duplicate slide" or copy and paste the slide.

Repeat this multiple times to make 5 or 10 copies of the slide (for example).

Later when the slideshow runs, it will look like the movie has paused on this slide for longer.
When you are done creating your stop motion animation, you now need to get a special link for people to view it. Instead of simply sharing your slideshow, you will want to use the " Publish to the Web" option. This will allow the slideshow to open full screen and start automatically.

Click "File" in the top menu bar.

Choose "Publish to the web" from the drop-down menu.

This will open the "Publish to the web" window.

Check the box for "Start slideshow as soon as the player loads".

Also check the box for "Restart the slideshow after the last slide".

Now click the "Publish" button and click "OK".

Finally copy the link provided for the published slideshow.

Speed up the Slideshow

By default the "Publish to the web" link will open the slideshow fullscreen and start it playing with each slide advancing every 3 seconds. That sounds quick, but it is way too long to give the illusion of animation. To make the stop motion animation look like it is moving quickly, you need to edit the link to reduce the delay between each slide.

When you look at the "Publish to the web" link, you will see the following at the very end:

This tells the slideshow how many milliseconds to wait in between each slides. There are 1,000 milliseconds in 1 second, so the default of 3,000 means there is a 3 second delay before moving to the next slide.

You can speed up the slideshow by making this number smaller. For example, if you change the value to 250 that would be 250 milliseconds, or one-fourth of a second. This would mean there would be four slides displayed per second, which would be much faster and give the illusion of animation.

You will need to experiment with different values to find the best speed for your slideshow to produced the desired effect.

Now that you have edited the "Publish to the web" link to make your slideshow move much faster, you are ready to share that link with others. Anyone who clicks the link will be able to view your stop motion animation movie.

You can share the link in many ways:

Put the link on your website

Post it on social media

Email the link to others

Put the link inside a Google Document

Make a QR Code or shortened URL

If you want to go one step more, another option is to make a video out of your final stop motion animation using a screen capture tool such as Screencastify. See my earlier blog post for ideas on how to do that here:

Conclusion

We are always looking for creative ways for students to share their ideas and express their understanding. Stop motion animation can be one more fun option for a student learning product. With Google Slides it can be an easy process for students who enjoy telling a story one frame at a time!

If you have any examples of student-created or teacher-created animations with Google Slides, feel free to share in the comments below.

Post by Eric Curts. Bring me to your school, organization, or conference with over 50 PD sessions to choose from. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

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Stop Motion Animation with Google Slides

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I have always been a giant fan of stop motion animation. As a child I grew up on "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Year Without a Santa Claus". In more recent years I have enjoyed "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Fantastic Mr. Fox", and "Kubo and the Two Strings".

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Create a free account with your Google login. Select "Video" to combine photos and video clips to make a great looking finished product. There is a 1 minute quick tip video to get you started.

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Create a free account with your Google login (be sure to select "student"). "Your words. Our art. Create an amazing picture book today!" Here is an example... https://storybird.com/books/invent-mighty-worlds-4/

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Become a better writer with Storybird's creativity tools. Online courses, challenges, and reader feedback will help you improve your writing.

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All of the lessons presented in Writing Academic Rhymes can be completed with or without music. If you decide to have a culminating performance, you should probably give your students a sense of how to choose a beat and structure a complete song. This kind of assignment may work best as an extra-credit assignment.

Step 1: Find a beat

Most of the time, you should have your students write over a particular beat from beginning to end. If they write without a beat, it's going to take a lot more work to try to get their lyrics to fit with the music once that element is added. So have them pick a beat first. You can find over 50 original beats here.

Note: To keep things simple, you can play one beat in class and have all of your students write over it. If you have the time, however, it is generally better to have each student choose their own beat that reflects their mood and style.

Step 2: Add hooks and verses

Nearly every rap song consists of three basic parts: intros, hooks (choruses) and verses. Occasionally, you'll see some other elements, but usually rappers stick to these three.

Most songs begin with some instrumental bars, which are typically followed by a verse, although some do start with a hook. Very few songs begin with rapping. Usually the beat plays for 4 or 8 bars before the rapper comes in.

After the intro, most songs contain two to four verses of 16 to 32 bars each. The verse is the largest section of a song and usually contains the bulk of the information. When instructing your students, have them sketch out the song by dividing the academic content into verses that make sense. Verses are often of equal length, such as 16 bars each. However, they can also have different lengths.

After the first verse comes the hook, which is the most memorable (and often most important) part of many hip-hop songs. There are basically two types of hooks: rapped or sung. Many hooks incorporate both of these techniques. All kinds of rappers write the rapped hooks, while pop-type rappers favor the sung hooks. As your students are writing their hooks, know that they have these options.

It's important to have the hook accomplish two things. First, it must be fun to listen to, because it's the part that listeners are going to hear the most. This, I'm sure, is what The Sugarhill Gang was thinking about with this hook on "Rapper's Delight":

I said a hip-hop, the hippie the hippie,
To the hip hip-hop, uh you don't stop the rockin', To the bang bang, say up jumped the boogie, To rhythm of the boogie the beat.

That hook doesn't make any sense, but it is fun and oddly catchy. The second thing most hooks should do is advance the main idea of the song. Often, the best hooks do this without being obvious. Take this example from Jay-Z on a track where he basically just brags:

Can't touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable
Shake the unshakeable (it's Hovi baby)
Can't see the unseeable, reach the unreachable,
Do the impossible (it's Hovi baby)

He doesn't use the hook to come out and just say, "I am awesome," but that is the message. Since your students are writing an academic song, they'll want to think of a hook that can complement the subject. Students should always come back to the hook once they've written the whole song to see if they can improve it. Hooks are extremely important.

Step 3: Write the song

In some cases, it's a good idea to have students sketch out their songs, but if they have a good sense of the information they want to include, they can probably start writing and see where it takes them. The best advice at this stage is just to keep the students writing and rewriting until they have something that they're ready to share with others.

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All of the lessons presented in Writing Academic Rhymes can be completed with or without music. If you decide to have a culminating performance, you should probably give your students a sense of how to choose a beat and structure a complete song. This kind of assignment may work best as an extra-credit assignment.

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Rhyming dictionary and other creative tools for poets and songwriters.

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The most extensive dictionary of perfect and near rhymes. Mobile friendly.

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Create your own ebook right in Chrome! Here is a guide for how to create your first book: https://support.bookcreator.com/hc/en-us/articles/201908301-Your-first-book

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Web-based app for making ebooks in the classroom. Teachers can get started for free and invite students to join their library. Add text, images, audio and video and easily publish your books online.