Free Google Slides & PowerPoint themes for teachers (plus lesson ideas and activities to use in class).



This post is by Paula Martínez, the creator of Slides Mania. Paula has a 9 to 5 job that has nothing to do with design or creativity or education! Making presentation templates has become a fun hobby that allows her to express her creativity. This led to SlidesMania being born. You can connect with Paula on Twitter at @SlidesManiaSM and subscribe to her email list at slidesmania.com to get the latest templates sent right to your inbox.
The right colors and graphics can make all the difference when creating an engaging Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation. However, sometimes creating the right theme takes time and creative energy that we don't always have.
That's why Slides Mania was created. With more than 150 free PowerPoint or Google Slides themes, you will surely find one that fits your next presentation or project.
Many of these templates fit perfectly in the lessons you already teach. Teachers from all over the world have used these themes in their classrooms in lots of creative and engaging ways.
Below you will find free downloadable themes for both Google Slides or PowerPoint plus ideas for using them in the classroom with your students.
Here are 20 FREE Google Slides templates and PowerPoint themes plus activity ideas and resources to get started ...
I am beyond thankful to Jennifer Leban and Omar López, there was no way for me to make this template without their help. Please do follow them if you are a Twitter user!
I’ve vectorized the drawings so you can resize them without losing quality. You can choose different paper backgrounds and also change the background color behind the notepad / sketchbook.
Sketchnoting, or visual note-taking, can transform doodles into a tool that helps our students deepen their understanding of a concept. It’s a fun and brain-friendly way to organize ideas visually and makes them easy to remember. Use this template on a tablet for digital sketchnotes or print it out to give students an inspiring place to take their own sketchnotes.
Resource: 10 tips for creating awesome diginotes with Canva (these tips apply to digital note taking with Google Slides and Powerpoint too!)
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Now that we can all finally insert audio in our Google Slides decks, you can use this fun theme in your classroom.
You can duplicate the radio slide as many times you need and change the dial position on each slide. Same goes with the iPod slides, just duplicate them and edit the text showing on them.
Katie Digital Planner was thought more as tutorial than a template, but since it was such a hit among educators, we decided to add a new one, especially for teachers and students. It’s completely customizable, you can change colors, and even the tab names by editing the master.
@eduGOOGdroid from Twitter was looking for a slide deck based on Material Design and featuring Google colors. He sent us his idea, and we made this template out of it.
We have also added a hamburger menu with some hyperlinks. You can replace the icons for ones that best represent your topic and then update the links to their corresponding slides.
The Mr. G can be used as a dummy Google search. Ss can pick a subject and add it to the search box, add the results in a Googly way and hyperlink those results to other slides where they can expand the information. Great for showing research skills.
Or teachers can add the subject based on a lesson that was given in the search box and let students retrieve the information as search results.
As a mom, I would love to know more about my daughter’s teachers. So why not create a newsletter using Google Slides to send out to parents? Or even use it as a way for the students to introduce themselves to you and the rest of the class.
Click on the link below to find a little tutorial on how to make a PDF newsletter. And of course, you can also download this template.
Even in a world where texting takes over as our main source of written communication it's still very important for students to know how to write a letter. Use this template to have students practice their letter writing skills. You can sent their letter digitally or even print them out and send them through the mail!
This one is not a template, or maybe it is, it depends on how you use it. It was thought for elementary teachers for customizing drag and drop activities. Also works for a lesson about farm animals for ESL teachers.
All graphics are made from shapes and it includes a barn, trees, clouds, fences, cows, horses, sheep, pigs, chickens and chicks.
Resource: How to Create Drag and Drop Activities with Google Slides by Kasey Bell
Introducing our set #3 of infographics for Google Slides or PowerPoint.
This time is all about charts. It includes bars, circles chart, triangles, demographics, squares.
All slides are 100% customizable, simply edit them to represent your data. You can also change all colors to match your topic or brand. Just copy the ones you like and paste them on any of our themes.
Infographics are everywhere. They’re eye-catching. They summarize information succinctly.
They’re very visual, whether you’re viewing on a page or a printed version hung on a wall.
If you think about it, infographics meet many of the same goals as our students’ writing assignments.
Use this theme to give your students a template to create their own infographic on any topic in any subject.
Resource: Creating eye-popping infographics with Google Drawings (although this post focuses on Google Drawings these tips work with any tool to create infographics)
Paterson has a retro style. It mimics an old operating system, featuring windows, folders, cursors and a loading icon.
The best part of this free theme for Google Slides or PowerPoint is that you can change its accent color very easily. Simply go to Slide > Edit Master > Click on any cyan shape > Click on fill color > Click on the little pencil icon next to the word THEME > Click on Choose a theme color > Click on Accent 1 > And change it any color you like.
This one is one of those special requests: Matt Meyer (an amazing 6th Grade Teacher from Illinois) asked me if I had a template inspired in Harry Potter. I didn’t, so here it is.
I know it's not pixel perfect (again, I am not a designer nor an illustrator) and when I was working on it, I thought I couldn’t make it. But I sent the first draft to Matt and he liked it! So, for me it’s mission accomplished!
How can I use Slides Mania templates?
You are free to use our templates for both personal and commercial purposes.
Just keep the Credits slide or mention SlidesMania and any other resources used on the footer of a slide.
You are not allowed to:
- Sublicense, sell or rent any of SlidesMania’s templates or modified versions of them.
- Distribute SlidesMania’s presentation templates unless it has been expressly authorized by us.
- Include SlidesMania’s content in an online or offline database or file.
- Offer SlidesMania’s templates (or modified versions of them) for download.
- Acquire the copyright of any of SlidesMania’s presentation templates.
How will or how have you used these templates in the classroom? Please share with us on Twitter using the hashtags #SlidesManiac and #Ditchbook.
For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links:
Interested in having Matt present at your event or school? Contact him by e-mail!
Is Matt presenting near you soon? Check out his upcoming live events!
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THESE ARE AWESOME!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
Glad you’re enjoying them Jeanna! 🙂
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Wow! Thank you so much from a grateful middle school teacher!
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THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing! These are amazing for my class!
I love slidesmania. You are doing a wonderful job. I have got a question as I am not a native speaker of English and am not sure about the rules. Am I allowed to share modified versions of your presentations with students via google slides?