Create beautiful websites using Google Sites and Canva together

The Grade 6s and 7s have been creating websites to use as digital portfolios throughout the year. They used Google Sites for this. Of course, Canva, my favourite graphics application, helped the students create stunning sites.

How to create website buttons using Canva

They made superb headings for their websites using Canva  (see previous post) and they also created attractive buttons for each page using Canva. They used the following headings (we brainstormed the ideas for these headings based on last years ICT work): 
- About me
- My blog
- My stories
- My other writing
- My projects
- My videos and graphics
- My coding examples

They have started uploading this term's work to their digital portfolios, and so far have uploaded an 'About me video' and an 'I am' poem to their About Me page.

I blurred our learners' faces using https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/?action=blu

Learner examples

How did we go about making the website buttons? 

When I learn to do something, I usually find a relevant YouTube video or two, and then I create a relevant PowerPoint to guide my lessons with the learners. (You can see that I use Google Workplace and Microsoft interchangeably!) I convert this PowerPoint to Google Slides and add it to my Google Classroom lesson so that it is always available for the learners to look at. (I use Google Classroom for every lesson). This procedure works really well for me. 

Here is an example of one of the videos that I followed for guidance in making buttons - 'How to Create Custom Banner and Buttons for Google Sites' from Vestal's 21st Century Classroom Channel:  https://bit.ly/3x5CkkV.

Use Dance Party for your next Hour of Code - it is great fun!

Although we do Coding lessons at school every two week with our Grades 1 - 7 classes, we always love to end the term with an Hour of Code, and obtain a certificate. We were delighted to find that Dance Party was available as an Hour of Code session. 

What is the Hour of Code? 

The Hour of Code is a one-hour tutorial designed for all ages in over 45 languages. It is run in 180 countries from 7 - 12  December - although one can do it any time, like we do.  There are loads of different options to choose from based on your students' age https://hourofcode.com/za/learnThe Hour of Code is a global movement to introduce people of all ages to computer programming in a fun way, and it certainly achieves that. The students are awarded a certificate once they have completed their Hour of Code. Our students love it.

Here is a photo of the Grade 4s who loved using Dance Party for their Hour of Code at the end of this term.

 

I blurred our learners' faces using https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/?action=blu

Make an avatar for blogs or websites using www.cartoonify.de

 

What is an avatar?

At our school we use avatars as a replica of the student creating them. The students use online names when they create online sites such as a blog or sites, and they never put photos of themselves on their own sites - hence an avatar. One can use avatars for various purposes such as uploading a profile picture to ta Google Drive profile, a Google classroom profile, and a blog or website profile etc.

Why use www.cartoonify.de?

The learners love creating avatars. I rather like this site, cartoonify.de, as no login or registering is required and the students can download their avatars in three sizes to their downloads folder. We always use the smallest size, 250 X 250 pixels.

Examples of the created avatars 

Here are a few examples of the avatars made by the learners:

Let your primary school learners create Blogger blogs to use as digital portfolios

I blurred our learners' faces using https://www2.lunapic.com/editor/?action=blu

What is a blog?

Blogging is an online, digital form of writing that has always appealed to me as a teacher. I see blogging as an exciting way to enable my students to express their thoughts and share them with the world while learning the important lessons of online safety at the same time. We use blogs as digital portfolios so that the learners can show their families what they have created. We use Blogger because the teacher can have control over the blogs.

The amount of learning that can happen through blogging is very beneficial. The students not only learn about online safety, but also about formatting, editing, and how to work with images and videos as they work on their blogs. best is they are creating!

The classes were able to create lovely headers in Canva and they added their avatars and poems to their blogs as well.

Examples of our blogs