Third graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about aquatic and terrestrial food chains in Science (SOL3.5), so today students in Ms. Middleton’s class created animated food chains using Google Slides. First I posted a blank template to Google classroom and set it up to make a copy for each student. We discussed the different habitats they have learned about (rainforest, grasslands, desert, ocean, etc), and I told them to chose one for their food chain diagram. On the first slide, the students clicked the background button and chose an image of their habitat. Then we added the title and their name. I showed them how to change the font, size, and color so it showed up well on the background image. On the second slide we added a sun shape by clicking the Shapes button and changing the fill and outline colors. We double-clicked inside the shape and typed the word “Sun.” Next I showed them how to add the other plants and animals by clicking the Image button and doing a Google search. Under each animal or plant the students added a text box label. We also added curved connectors (Line > Curved connector) with arrows showing the flow of energy to connect the images together. Finally we added animations to each picture so they appeared in order. The students posted their finished slideshows to Google classroom, but you can see them all here.
