Random Duck Race Start a race
English
For teachers

A duck race in your slides

One link, made in a minute: the race plays inside PowerPoint and Canva, and opens from Google Slides, with your students’ names on the start line.

Make my slide linkPowerPointCanvaGoogle Slides

The lesson is on the screen, and you need a name: who answers next, which group presents first, who wins the quiz prize. With a duck race inside your slides you don’t leave the presentation. You press the race, the ducks go, and the class watches the river pick.

It takes one link. Make it once, paste it into PowerPoint, Canva or Google Slides, and it opens your race with your students’ names already on the start line.

PowerPoint: the race inside the slide

  1. Go to Insert › Add-ins › Get Add-ins (on some versions Insert › My Add-ins), search for Web Viewer and add it. It is free, from Microsoft.
  2. On your slide, open Web Viewer, paste your slide link and press Preview.
  3. Resize the box to fill the slide. In the slide show, press the race to start it.

Web Viewer works in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 on Windows and Mac and in PowerPoint on the web. On an older PowerPoint without add-ins, use the link on a picture, as for Google Slides below.

Canva: the Embed element

  1. In your design, open Elements (or Apps) and choose Embed.
  2. Paste your slide link and add it to the page, then resize it.
  3. Present: the race plays in the slide. (Downloads such as PDF or video turn it into a picture.)

If Canva shows a link card instead of the race, select a picture or a button, press Link and paste your slide link: in Present mode one click opens the race.

Google Slides and Keynote: a link on a picture

Google Slides and Keynote don’t play websites inside a slide, so the race opens next to it:

  1. Add a picture or a big button to the slide (a duck works well).
  2. Select it, choose Insert › Link (Ctrl + K, or ⌘ + K on a Mac) and paste your slide link.
  3. When you present, click it: the race opens full screen in a new tab. Close the tab to come back to your slides.

Tips for the classroom

  • Open the link once before class. The game is then already in the browser, and the race starts at once.
  • Shaky Wi-Fi? Install the free Lite app on the classroom computer: it races without the internet.
  • Turn the sound up. The countdown and the call at the finish are half the show.
  • One link per class. Make a slide link for each class list and keep them in your lesson slides.

Questions

Is it free?

Yes. The race, the slide links and the Web Viewer add-in are all free, with no account.

Do my students’ names leave the classroom?

The names are kept with the link, so anyone with the link can open the same race. Use first names or nicknames if the slides are shared outside the class.

Can I change the names later?

Make a new slide link with the new list and paste it in place of the old one. In the race itself you can also edit the names before you start.

More to read: a random student picker, 10 classroom ideas and embedding the race on a website.

Keep reading

All posts
Classroom Random Student Picker: Call on Students with a Duck Race Paste the class list once, race it whenever you need a name: who answers next, who presents first, who reads aloud. Set up in a minute. · 3 min read Classroom 10 Creative Ways to Use Random Duck Race in Your Classroom From picking a student and forming random groups to “Duck of the Day” and vocabulary races: ten tried-and-tested ideas for the classroom. · 5 min read Guides How to Play Random Duck Race (Step by Step) Add the names, pick the ducks, press start — and everything else: phone rooms, sharing the result, saving lists and tips for big fields. · 6 min read