One of the awesome teachers I have the privilege of working with at Ault, Nicole Donaldson @mrsdonaldson5th , who teaches 5th grade Language Arts, told me about a class meeting activity she recently had her students complete. Instead of standing in the front of the room and going over school rules again, she gave students the assignment to create a meme (you know, those hilarious pictures you see on the internet with white text at the top and bottom) which exemplifies or explains a school rule in table groups using one safe-for-school (but still fun) image she selected. While each table had the same grumpy cat face, they all selected different school expectations to reinforce for their classmates in this super fun, silly, and engaging assignment.
When she told me about the assignment, I immediately knew I was in love!
The assignment has so many strengths:
- Students use technology to CREATE
- Students COLLABORATE
- Student have FUN – with memes
- SAFE – not out on meme generator websites which can sometimes have vulgar or offensive words or images
- And best of all – the assignment had STUDENTS TEACHING EACH OTHER about the concept (here, school rules – but potential for ANY topic)
So… I knew I had to steal this amazing idea and create a safe-for-school meme generator template that gives students choices of safe for school images (while still giving the awesome Nicole Donaldson all the kudos and credit she is due for the creative and innovative idea – thank you, Nicole, for sharing and collaborating with me)!
So here’s what I came up with:
On this template, I’ve set up word art text boxes for the students, instructions off the canvas on the left side of the screen, and numerous image choices off of the canvas on the right side of the screen. Remember, in Google Drawings, anything that is off the canvas WILL NOT appear when you download your completed image! Sweet!
To use this template:
- Click here to make a copy of the template.
- Select the image you want to use.
- Click and drag it onto the canvas.
- Click a corner and drag it to enlarge the image so it fills the entire canvas.
- Double click on each text box to change the text to your own.
- Choose File, Download as, PNG to download a copy of the graphic on your canvas!
To hear me explain more about this template and get more easy student collaboration ideas, check out my presentation for CFISD’s Virtual Tech-a-Thon which includes a link to my presentation slide deck, lots of students collaboration resources, and a link to actually hear and see the recording of me presenting!
Meredith Akers 
This is so awesome. THANK YOU for sharing. Thomas Jefferson Middle School is Valparaiso is using this for a meme contest.
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That is SO AWESOME!!! Please share some completed products! 🙂
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How do I make one? I am a beginner.😺
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EXCELLENT! We used this meme generator, curated middle school appropriate memes and had students generate memes that explained science lab rules. Not only was it incredibly easy to use, the kids ran with the project (most considered themselves to be spicy meme-masters) and created some amazing products. I’m a firm believer in keeping my content delivery systems relevant to my students. This fits the bill!
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THANK YOU for sharing this! My high school students will love this. We’re making memes for Arthur Miller’s The Crucible…and the other meme generators online were terribly inappropriate!
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Yay!!!! Add more pictures to it that they’ll relate to, also! Would love to see what they come up with!!!
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How do you add more pictures to it???
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Go to insert, image and then size down and move to the side! Let me know if you need more help!
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Thanks for this! All the online sites were not appropriate for middle schoolers.
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I totally agree! So glad you found it useful!
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How do you add more pictures to the side?
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Go to insert, image and then size down and move to the side! Let me know if you need more help!
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This is fantastic! Thank you – I just am wondering do I need to have students make a copy so they are not all working on this same template at the same time?
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Yes – if you want each student to have their own, you could have them each make mage a copy, or you could assign it through google classroom so that each students gets a copy.
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Can’t wait to use this to create some reminders about our class community. I know it’ll be a huge hit with my grade fives.
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I was about to give up because our district is super strict and would NEVER unblock the meme generator sites – this is a lifesaver and I am annoyed at myself that I didn’t think of it haha. Thank you so much!!
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Thank you! I had just found out about doing this, but heard it is hard to find appropriate sites to have students use.
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This is exactly what I needed! Thank you for creating and sharing this resource!!
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Hi,
We are not a Google school. Is there a way that my students can access this without an e-mail account?
Thanks!
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I’m not sure! I’ll look into this ASAP!
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This is great! We will use it for our small group zoom meeting activity tomorrow. Thank you for making and sharing!
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If I want my students to make more than one meme, is there a way to duplicate this?
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draw a robot and like a person
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Thank you for sharing this! I was able to recreate it for my e-learning students 🙂
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I’m so glad!!!
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Incredible resource!!!!!! Thank you!!!
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Thank you so much for sharing this! This is so helpful!
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this is SOOOOOOO EPIC 10/10 best meme program ever created no cap our school uses this all the time for EPIC meme Contests!!!!!!!!!!!
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I totally want to see the winning memes!!!!
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OMG! You are the best. Thank you for sharing your template. I was afraid to let my kids (6 graders) use a generator.
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Thank you! This is awesome! There were too many inappropriate images in the free online meme generators.
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Thanks, Meredith….this saved the day for my Youth Activism Writing unit. Everything else was blocked!
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I’m so glad!!! I made this YEARS ago now… please let me know if there are updates you wish I would make!
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This is amazing! We have a Canada Goose nesting in our classroom courtyard and just went online. My kids are missing seeing her and her mate so I have been taking pictures. I used a picture of the goose and had the kids make memes. They LOVED it. It has provided joy to my class and the staff at my school! Thank you for sharing!
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This is truly amazing! We had to do an assignment for making a meme for a class project and everything else was blocked until I found this. Thanks so much, you’re amazing!
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