Tag Archives: google slides

How to Make a Pictograph with Google Slides

Want to learn how to make a pictograph with Google Slides? Keep reading! This blog post explains how to use the drawing tools in Google Slides to transform a slide into a pictograph.

What is a Pictograph?

A pictograph is a graph that is made from pictures. Each image represents a value. It could be a fraction, ratio, percent, price, or other unit of measure.

Select a Key to Represent Each Value

The first thing you need to do when making a pictograph is decide upon the key you will use to represent the data. For example:

one body = ten million people
one piece of coral = one fifth
one fish = 10%

Make a Pictograph Using Google Slides

Follow the step-by-step instructions to learn how to make a pictograph using Google Slides. Be creative!
1.Open Google Slides.
2. Click the New Slide arrow. Select Main Point or Big Number.

3. In the text boxes, type the fact. Format the text to make the number stand out.

Add fact to the Google Slide. Format the text to make the number stand out.

4. Insert an image to represent the value. It should be a simple clip art, symbol, or icon:

Click Insert Image.
Click Search the web. Type a search word.
Click on an icon you like. Click Insert.
Resize and move the icon.

5. Copy and paste the image to create a group:

Select the image.
Press CTRL + D on the keyboard, to duplicate the image.
Continue to duplicate, until there are enough images to represent the number.

6. Select the images on the slide:

Place the first and last image where you want them on the slide.
Click and drag around the images to select them all.

how to make a pictograph — Place the first and last image where you want them on the slide.

7. Arrange and distribute the images:

From the Arrange menu, click Align.
Select Top, Middle, or Bottom.
From the Arrange menu, click Distribute. Select Horizontally.

Some images need to have their color changed to show the percentage.

8. Recolor some of the images to show a fraction, ratio, or percent.

Select the images to be a different color.
Click Format options.
Click the Recolor arrow. Pick a color.

In this sample, the green figures represent 60%.

Crop An Image to Show Part of a Value

Your value might be 65 thousand people. What do you do? You will need to crop part of an image to remove a section.

Select the image to be cropped.
Click Crop image.
Drag a handle to remove part of the shape. The part outside the black crop lines will be trimmed away.

Click Crop image again.

Make One Image Look Like It is Two Colors

Select an image. Press CTRL + D on the keyboard to duplicate it.
Crop the pasted image.
Recolor the cropped image.
Drag it over top of another image, so that they look like one piece.

Environmental Education Lessons for Grades 6-9

The instructions for how to make a pictograph are modified from the extension activity in the TechnoKids project, TechnoEarth. In the lesson students follow instructions to create a pictograph about an environment topic. It is a meaningful way to demonstrate learning.

Download How to Make a Pictograph Lesson

How to Make a Pictograph Download

TechnoEarth and environmental education — TechnoEarth has environmental education lessons for Grades 6-9.

Are you interested in environmental education? In TechnoEarth, students design an interactive infographic to raise awareness for an environmental issue. Visit TechnoEarth to learn more details about this engaging technology unit that places students in the role of environmental stewards.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Slides

As you use Google Slides a few times, you can speed up your work by using keyboard shortcuts for some of the functions you use often. Here’s a list of some of the common ones for a PC that you might find helpful.

keyboard shortcuts

Action	Keyboard Shortcut
Working with a Presentation
Open a presentation	CTRL + O
New slide	CTRL + M
Print a presentation	CTRL + P
Presenting the Show
Present from beginning	CTRL + SHIFT + F5
Present from current slide	CTRL + F5
Exit the show	ESC
Editing Shortcuts Common to Many Apps
Undo	CTRL + Z
Redo	CTRL + Y
Copy	CTRL + C
Cut	CTRL + X
Paste	CTRL + V
Paste without formatting	CTRL + SHIFT + V
Duplicate	CTRL + D
Select all	CTRL + A
Text Shortcuts Common to Many Apps
Bold text	CTRL + B
Italic text	CTRL + I
Underline text	CTRL + U
Insert a numbered list	CTRL + SHIFT + 7
Insert a bulleted list	CTRL + SHIFT + 8
Insert a comment	CTRL + ALT + M
Insert a link	CTRL + K
Increase font size of selected text	CTRL + SHIFT + >
Decrease font size of selected text	CTRL + SHIFT + <
Working with Objects
Bring object forward	CTRL + ↑
Bring object to front	CTRL + SHIFT + ↑
Send object backward	CTRL + ↓
Send object to back	CTRL + SHIFT + ↓
Move to the next object	TAB
Duplicate an object	Select the object, press CTRL, and drag

If I’ve missed any that you use and find helpful, please let me know. Next, I’ll make a list of keyboard shortcuts for Google Docs.

Explore Tool in G Suite for Education

The Explore Tool is in the lower right corner of any Docs, Slides, or Sheets document.

Google Apps for Education recently announced that it will now be known as G Suite for Education. Along with the rebranding, some other updates were made. Most notable for teachers, the Research Tool has been eliminated and replaced by the Explore Tool, which has some benefits and but also a significant shortcoming.

First, the bad news. Gone is the ability to add citations and footnotes directly into a document using the Research Tool. For teachers and students, this is an unfortunate setback. Being able to easily and quickly identify sources is an essential research skill. What used to be an onerous task, was made simple by the Research Tool. One click on Cite automatically inserted a citation and footnote. We hope that Google will reinstate this function soon. In the meantime, in my next post, I’ll include some online citation makers that create a citation with the click of a button!

The good news is that you can still search without leaving the document. Spending less time switching between apps allows students to focus on the assignment and its content.

In Docs, clicking on the Explore Tool offers three options: WEB, IMAGES, and DRIVE.

Enter a topic into the search box. WEB results include a title, URL, and short snippet summarizing the website. Clicking on a link opens a new browser tab.

Clicking on IMAGES offers a gallery of pictures related to the search term. To insert an image into the document, simply drag it where it is to be placed. It will, by default, be in line but text wrap can be changed by selecting the image and choosing Wrap text.
explore tool images

Selecting DRIVE looks in your Google Drive for files that include the search term.

If the Explore Tool is opened when there is already text in the document, instant search suggestions are given based on the contents. Google calls this ‘insight’ and it does seem to work quite well.

The Explore Tool is consistent in Sheets and Slides. In Sheets, use the Explore Tool to ask questions about data using words if you do not know how to construct a formula. Formula and formatting suggestions are offered based on the content of the spreadsheet. In Slides, the Explore Tool also offers design suggestions as well as search results.

The research recommendations, design tools, and insight capability of this new tool make it an effective and productive update to G Suite for Education.

Trace a Photo to Make a Cartoon

Not sure how to draw? You can trace images in photographs to create cartoons using Google Slides. Try it!

Create a new presentation in Google Slides. Rename it trace.
If asked to pick a theme, pick Simple Light. Click OK.
Click Layout. Pick Blank.
Add a picture as a background to lock the image you will trace:
a. Click Background. Beside Image, click Choose.

b. Click Search. Find a simple photograph that you can trace.

Click the Select line arrow . Pick Curve or Polyline.
Click around the shape of the object to trace it. TIP: Do not click on the same spot twice!

To edit, right click on the shape. Select Edit Points.

Make the other shapes and adjust the object order. Add details to make it look great!

Click Background. Click Reset to remove it.

To save it as a picture, select Download as from the File menu. Pick JPEG.

This is the “Trace a Photo to Make a Cartoon” Extension Activity from the TechnoGallery technology project. Check out the project to see how young students can use digital art tools to create a gallery of fun, original masterpieces.