I love sharing ideas on this blog that I think will either help teachers, save time, or engage students… but lately, as we are all working harder than ever before to teach through this pandemic, I am at a loss for what I can do to help other educators (or myself). So, this post veers slightly off course from what I normally share, but does answer a few requests I have received asking me to show how I make the backgrounds for my slide decks (like the backgrounds in my Student Planner and To-Do List Post and the backgrounds in my Rank & Justify Slides Template).

First off – here are a few backgrounds I made recently that are FREE for you to grab and use in your projects if you like them – as long as you do not use for profit/resale in projects you will sell to others.

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Get access to download all of the backgrounds above in THIS GOOGLE DRIVE FOLDER. You have my permission to use and enjoy in you projects and with your students – but do not use for profit/resale in projects you will sell to others.

Here is an example of these backgrounds used in a presentation:

You can grab a copy of the above example presentation template at this link.

To create these backgrounds, I used the iPad app Procreate – which currently costs $9.99 on the app store. If you don’t have an iPad, they also have Procreate Pocket for iPhone which costs $4.99 and can easily create the same effects and textures I showed in the examples above. I am not usually one to recommend anything that costs money… but I do think this app is worth the cost. If you want to try out designing digitally before paying, you can get your feet wet with the app Tyasui Sketches which is FREE for both ios and android devices. It can do very similar things. It is where I started before I took the plunge and spent the $10 for Procreate.

So how did I make these backgrounds??? Here is a tutorial where I walk through making one of the fun rainbow backgrounds, add in some fun textures and effects, and export so I can use it in google slides! Watch the video if you want to learn how to make your own backgrounds:

While I didn’t provide a template, activity, or tutorial that directly applies to helping educators engage students this week, I hope you were able to learn a tip or grab a background that made you happy! Let me know how I can help you as we work together to support students!