"How do You Create Worksheets?"

 I recently had a student teacher reach out to me with the question "How do You Create Worksheets?"

I wasn't the first person they had asked, but they gotten a lot of very general answers like "in Power Point" or "on Google Slides." However, I got the impression they were looking for something deeper, more of a how to than a where.

I wanted to share my answer in case anyone else out there had a similar question.

 I start out with a basic 7.5x11 Power Point Slide since you can put the elements flush against the edge of the slide and still end up with a gutter when its printed off, and Power Point is also easy to upload to Google Slides if you decide you do want it digital.

 

I like to keep my lines clean, but I did invest in some cute boarders to keep things visually appealing. After I've fitted my boarder to the page I like to start things off with a catchy title that I can reference any time I need kids to get something specific. Every writing project and recurring worksheet I use has a title. 

When I'm setting up the formatting, I'll often use several text boxes across the page to break things up and create a visual transition from one part of the task to the next. For fonts I like to use something crisp like Calibri or Comic Sans (my fav because of its readability and formatting for the "a") since dyslexia is very common in the community where I teach.

On occasion I'll use a little black and white clipart along the sides to spice things up, but I usually find it just clouds the "lines" of the layout and makes it hard for some of my students to follow the flow of the worksheet.

For variety and inspiration, here are a few examples of worksheets I've created.

This is one of my more recent worksheets. Here is the basic template I created to base all my vocabulary mapping worksheets off of. Having a base template for each type of assignment helps create a cohesive flow and gives the tasks consistency.

 I like to keep color graphics out of my worksheets, but I like to add a pop of color into some of my reference sheets, especially if the images are "busy" since I can use the colors to separate things out a bit.

I throw in a little Word every once in a while for very basic or highly compartmentalized worksheets because I prefer the table function in Word to that in Power Point.

I like to spice up my creative process here and there to keep things interesting, but these are my tried and true building blocks for creating worksheets and other things to use in my classroom. If you're trying to get started creating your own worksheets and have other questions about the process please let me know, I love to talk teacher shop.