In celebration of Fall, Halloween, and harvest festivals, here’s a digital directed draw that you can do with students using Google Drawing. If you’ve never done a digital directed draw with students, it’s a fun way to introduce Google Drawing and various tips and tricks to students.  Most everything you can do in Drawing you can also do in Slides and Docs. Whenever I do Digital Directed Draws with students, I start by showing them a model of what we are going to create and explain that the objective is not to create, in this case, a pumpkin that looks exactly like mine but make it your own. I tell students that I’m going to make a very traditional pumpkin that’s orange but if they want to make a purple pumpkin, that’s great! This little pep talk ensures that you have individual creations through the classroom for maximum creativity.


Here’s how to create your pumpkin.

1. Go to drive.google. com > New > Create > Google Drawings

2. Change Canvas Size (Optional): File > Page Set-up > Choose your desired size.

3. Change BackGround Color: Right Click on canvas > Background > Choose desired background color. The default background is transparent with the checkerboard pattern.

4.  Create the Basic Structure of the Pumpkin with Ovals, Half Moons, and Rectangle.

5. Use the fill, line, and line width tools to change the color and weight of your pumpkin.

6. Use the Scribble Tool to create a vine for your pumpkin.

Finally, give students a chance to play and create a background for their pumpkin(s). Here’s the landscape I created for my pumpkin.

If you’d like borrow some slides also describing how to make a pumpkin from my #FallCUE presentation last year that includes some additional tips and tricks.