How to Use Canva Templates in Pear Deck
Get Your Canva Template Into Pear Deck
Wondering if Canva templates can be used in Pear Deck? You have come to the right spot! Here is one way to quickly get your Canva slides into Google Slides, so that you can use them in Pear Deck with your students. If you are looking for more information about Canva or Pear Deck, I would first recommend becoming familiar with the basics on the Canva site and Pear Deck site.
If you are looking for the quick summary, Canva is an amazing design site with templates and slides to use in your classroom. Pear Deck allows you to take a slide show, for example with math problems, and have students interact directly with the slides. For example, they can write on their screen to solve a problem. The best part is that you can see all of their work as they complete the problems!
Step 1: Create Your Canva Slides
The first step, which some of you may have already completed, is to create your slides in Canva. For me in my math class, this includes some welcome slides with the date, announcements, schedule, warm up, and lesson slides. If you are eventually going to have a slide be one that students can write on, be sure to leave room on the slide for their work! Here is an example of a warm up slide in Canva.
Step 2: Save Your Canva Presentation as a Powerpoint
The next step is to click the 3 dots in the top right of your Canva presentation and then click “See All.” From there, you will select the “Microsoft PowerPoint” option.
Step 3: Insert PowerPoint into Google Slides
Once your Canva template is saved as a PowerPoint, you are read to add it to Google slides. Go into your Google Drive and create a new Google Slides presentation. From there you will click File, in the top left, and then select “Import Slides.” Find your PowerPoint document that you just saved, select the slides, and import them into your Google Slides presentation.
Step 4: Make Your Google Slides Interactive with the Pear Deck Add-On
For this step, you will need to have the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-On. Go to any slide in your presentation that you want students to be able to interact with. For my math class, a lot of times this is something like the warm-up slide above, where students will be writing on the screen. While on that slide, click the “Add-ons” tab at the top and select “Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on.” You can then select any of the interactive features on the right. I usually select “Draw” if I want students to be able to show their work. Once you have done this, your are ready to start your Pear Deck lesson!
Looking for Other Engaging Math Activities?
If you need some other ways to make math fun and engaging for your middle school math students, I highly recommend checking out some of these math board games. Each now includes a printed and digital Google slides option. This Area and Volume Board Game Bundle and this Expressions, Equations, and Inequalities Board Game Bundle are just a few of the examples currently available.
