In order to get the most out of Haiku Deck, try some of the ideas below, or submit your own in the comment box at the bottom of the page.

Organization Activity

With your child, decide on a subject to feature in a Haiku Deck presentation. For example, let's say you choose to highlight dogs as the focal point of your slideshow. Talk with your child about different ways in which it can be organized. Set a simple goal, like creating 8 slides. The first step would be the introductory slide, followed by a brief explanation of purpose, like examining variations between breeds. The next seven would each feature a different dog grouping (non-sporting, sporting, herding, terriers, toys, working, and hounds). To add familiarity to the presentation, try to pepper in some famous dogs, like the President's puppy to television's Lassie. The important thing to relay to your child is that all slideshows should always have a theme that is adhered to with each ensuing slide. There should be a "glue" that holds the slides together, and a consistency throughout. Afterwards, have your child create some new slideshows alone, reviewing them together to discuss how best to visually convey a coherent message through the grouping of similar topics.

Flexibility Activity

Explain to your child that the best way to make a visually appealing presentation is to include variation between slides. Slideshows that use the same formats, layouts, and font options throughout the entirety of the presentation may have a continuity, but also risk becoming dull. Even though the app is fairly limiting, encourage your child to explore different font and slide layout options. To use the example of dogs again, pairing text with a breed may seem like a tough endeavor, but with a little creativity, expressive, relevant matches can be made. For instance, "toy" dogs can be paired with overly enlarged text to accentuation their diminutive size. Aside from highlighting themes, experimenting with a presentation can lead to drastically different styles and reception. To demonstrate this concept, have your child create three separate versions of a presentation, and then go over each together to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.

Haiku Deck is just one of many options when it comes to creating slideshows and presentations. Look over the alternative selections below, or share your own favorites in the comment field at the bottom of the page.

Keynote

Keynote is Apple’s presentation software program. PowerPoint has comparable features to Keynote, and is also easy to convert and share. Find out more in our Keynote review.

PowerPoint:

Microsoft PowerPoint is a very common presentation software program. PowerPoint has comparable features to Keynote, and is also easy to convert and share. Check out our PowerPoint review for details.

Power Presenter

Power Presenter allows users to project PowerPoint or Keynote presentations that are saved as PDF files. Users can also use the blackboard feature to make and share notes on the slides as they present. Find more about this app on iTunes.