Putting together an engaging and visually appealing slideshow can be a daunting task. While Google (and PowerPoint before it) provided users with templates to help the process, times have changed and the templates have not kept up! Enter some amazing resources to gather up some excellent templates. One great way to help me while I was in the classroom is to use a different template for each unit, so that if my naming structure was clear, I could visually see what was what.
Slides Carnival
Slides Carnival was one of the first on the scene. They offer hundreds of slide show templates, including holiday templates, for free with no restrictions or account sign up necessary. (To provide credit to the creators, you have to leave the last slide providing credit to the creator(s) in your slideshow to abide by the license rules). You simply make a copy of the slideshow presented on the website and you are free to design to your hearts content. They offer plenty of options depending on what you are looking for, from science, to business, to education, to seasons, to holidays. You are sure to find something worthwhile to use. Plus, they provide a whole bunch of icons at the end for you to use.
SlidesGo
SlidesGo is another option for amazing templates. They do have “premium” templates that you have to sign up for and pay a subscription fee to use, but they have over 1,300 free slide templates for you to choose from. When you get to their site, click on the license button and filter by “free” options. This will make it super easy. From there, pick the one you like and make a copy and it will save to your Google Drive and you can start to edit. As with Slides Carnival, SlidesGo requests that you keep the “license” slide that says thanks to the creators in your presentation.
SlidesMania
The last site I want to highlight is one that has been created by teachers for teachers. SlidesMania is similar to the other two options as they provide free, high quality templates for you to use for you classroom projects. These follow the same as the others, with a credits slide at the end to allow you to give credit to the ones that created these templates.
All in all, these tools all have amazing options for you to spice up your slide shows in your classroom. Plus, it also has awesome editable icons that you can use for different presentations in your class. Introducing the students to tools like these may take away from the content, but will truly prepare them for their next steps as critical thinkings, problem solvers, and creators.
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