Adding extra things to spice up your choice boards is definitely not necessary. In fact, I don’t do it every time a create one because it can be time consuming.There is no need to worry if you haven’t added Bitmojis, GiF’s or other things to your boards. Sometimes I feel like adding a little fun since right now I am not seeing my students, I am just creating asynchronous lessons.
In my recent board I added my dog Macondo as a helper to give instructions to my kinder and first grade students. It was fun to put him on my boards!Below I am sharing the steps I followed. I divided them into 3 parts hoping to make it easier for you to follow.
You will need to:
Part 1
Choose a picture of your pet or any other picture of an animal.
Download the app “My Talking Pet.” There is a free trial period.
Open the app and upload the picture.
Once the picture is uploaded, the app will show you some dots to mark the eyes, mouth, and ears (see picture).
Add the voice (Once you have added the voice, that app will ask you for different options to save it. I downloaded mine to my computer).
Part 2
Upload the video to the Unscreen.com website. This will remove the background and the sound. Save this video because you will need it later!
Part 3
Use the video you downloaded from “My Talking Pet” and upload it to the online audio converter siteto extract the audio. Make sure to download the audio as mp3.
Save the audio file to your Google Drive and rename it.
Make sure that you set the audio file link to the Google setting “anyone with the link can view” so it is accessible for everyone when they open your choice board.
Insert the link to your audio file directly onto your Google Slides.
Lastly, add the video you downloaded from the Unscreen.com website.
Open Google Slides in “presentation mode” and enjoy seeing your pet or animal give instructions to your students.
In case you are still wondering how to add some fun to your choice boards, a gif of yourself can never go wrong!
I am now creating videos, making choice boards, and asynchronous lessons while the school is slowly transitioning to in-person classes. I know! It sounds like a backwards plan, but I think it is the best the school can do right now to support students who are in the classroom and those who continue with home learning.
That said, adding GIF’s to my choice boards has been something my younger students love seeing.
Here are the steps:
Make a short video of yourself.
Upload it to the Unscreen.com website to remove the background. It will only allow 6 seconds. Download the short gif to your computer (gif = graphics interchange format).
Create a background with Canva. You can use animated images. Educators can use Canva for free!
Upload your gif to Canva and place it on the background you created.
Download it again from Canva as a gif.
Place it on your choice boards and have fun!
I am sure there are other faster ways to do this, but this works great for me. If you know of another way to do it, please share it with us all in the comments.
Every year I like to give a virtual tour of my classroom or bags if I am a traveling teacher. For obvious reasons, this year is different for all of us. Right now I teaching synchronous classes from my classroom, but once we go back to in person classes I no longer will have a classroom. Meanwhile I am enjoying teaching from room 60.
I decided to give you a tour of my space. I have been using my document camera for Story Listening and for read alouds. I also purchased a computer riser and it has been the best thing I could have done for my back.
I have been enjoying creating different welcoming messages on Google Slides, and my students seem to enjoy them. How is this school year looking for you? Are you teaching from your classroom, from home, traveling from room to room? Are you teaching synchronously or asynchronously?
Have a wonderful school year!
You might like these resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers:
