Canva Classroom Recipe: Build interactive study tools with Canva Code

Guest author: Danica Botts

From teaching high school social studies to being a K-12th grade Digital Learning Coach and Instructional Designer, Danica loves exploring ways that technology can help connect teachers and students. Connect with her on Instagram or X as @TeachingNChucks.

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When Danica Botts' third-grade daughter needed to study the Founding Fathers, Danica—a former Social Studies teacher and self-professed Canva lover—decided to try something new. She opened Canva Code and within 60 seconds had created interactive flashcards complete with flip animations. Her daughter loved it:“This is definitely a better way to learn! I love the emojis to help give me a hint. Can you make more?” And that's when Danica realized: what if students built these tools themselves?

In this activity, students use Canva Code to create their own interactive study resources—flashcards, sorting games, vocabulary matching challenges, and more. The magic is in the creation process: research shows that making study materials is far more effective than passively reviewing them. Students choose their format, customize the content to their learning needs, and walk away with a resource they can actually use—plus introductory coding skills as a bonus. Whether they're memorizing historical figures, sorting scientific classifications, or matching math terms to definitions, students become the designers of their own learning.

Quick snapshot:

• Grade level: Grades 4–10
• Subject: Any—works across all content areas
• Duration: 1–2 class periods
• Key tools: Canva Code, Presentations

Learning objectives:

• Synthesize subject knowledge by identifying key facts, terms, or concepts worth studying
• Apply basic coding concepts through guided prompts to create interactive elements
• Develop digital literacy skills by customizing and refining AI-generated outputs
• Build metacognitive awareness by designing study tools tailored to personal learning needs

Essential Canva features:

• Canva Code: The AI-powered tool that generates interactive elements from simple text prompts—students describe what they want, and Canva Code builds it
• Presentations: The home for embedding finished Canva Code creations, allowing students to compile multiple study tools in one place
• Elements library: Graphics and icons to enhance the visual design of study tools

Requirements:

• Canva Code enabled for students (Note: Canva Code must be turned on by your district or school admin through Permission settings. If disabled, students can still use interactive study tools created by teachers but won't be able to build their own)
• Content students need to study (vocabulary lists, key facts, concepts to categorize)
• Devices with internet access
• Basic familiarity with Canva navigation

Time allocation:

• Period 1: Introduction to Canva Code, guided demo, and student creation time
• Period 2 (optional): Refinement, peer testing, and study session using created tools

Step 1: Introduce Canva Code with a guided demo

Show students how Canva Code works by demonstrating a simple example. Danica's Founding Fathers flashcards make an excellent demo—show how a straightforward prompt like "Create an interactive flashcard game about the Founding Fathers" generates a fully functional study tool with flip animations and progress tracking. Walk through the interface together: how to enter a prompt, review what Canva Code creates, and use "Use in a design" to add it to a presentation.

Highlight that Canva Code asks follow-up questions to customize the output. For flashcards, it might ask: What terms or facts should be included? How many cards? What visual style? Encourage students to answer these questions thoughtfully—the more specific they are, the better their study tool will be.

If Canva Code isn't enabled for students at your school, you can still run this activity by creating the study tools yourself based on student input, or by having students submit their prompts for you to generate on their behalf.

Step 2: Students choose their study tool format and create

Let students select the type of interactive study tool that best fits their content and learning style. Options include interactive flashcards (great for memorizing facts, dates, vocabulary, or key figures—click to flip and reveal answers), sorting/categorization games (perfect for classifying concepts, like sorting animals into mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, or grouping historical events by era), and vocabulary matching challenges (ideal for connecting terms with definitions, matching cause and effect, or pairing concepts).

Students open Canva Code and enter a prompt describing what they want to create. A helpful trick: have students add "Ask me follow-up questions about specific content, difficulty level, visual theme, and feedback style" to their prompt. This way, Canva Code will gather the details it needs to create a customized tool. For example: "Create an interactive flashcard set for Order of Operations in math. Ask me follow-up questions about specific content, difficulty level, visual theme, and feedback style." Students then answer these questions to make the tool their own.

Step 3: Customize and refine the design

Once Canva Code generates the initial study tool, students refine it. They can adjust colors and visual themes to match their preferences or the subject matter, add or modify content if Canva Code missed key terms, test the interaction to make sure it works as expected, and request changes by typing follow-up prompts like "Make the cards bigger" or "Add a celebration animation when I get the right answer."

This iterative process teaches students that first drafts—whether in writing or coding—can always be improved. Encourage them to think critically: Is this tool actually helpful for studying? What would make it better?

Step 4: Embed, share, and use for studying

Students click "Use in a design" to add their finished Canva Code creation to a presentation. They can compile multiple study tools in one place—perhaps flashcards for key terms, a sorting game for categories, and a matching challenge for definitions. The completed presentation becomes a personalized study resource they can return to before tests or share with classmates.

Consider having students swap study tools with peers to test each other's creations. This builds in peer review and gives everyone access to a wider variety of study resources.

Common challenges and solutions:

• Prompts too vague: If Canva Code's output isn't quite right, encourage students to be more specific. Instead of "Make flashcards about history," try "Make flashcards about the causes of the American Revolution with 8 cards"
• Students unsure what content to include: Have them start with their notes, a vocabulary list, or key concepts from the unit—the act of selecting what's important is itself valuable studying
• Tool doesn't work as expected: Remind students they can type follow-up prompts to fix issues. "The flip animation isn't working" or "Add a score tracker" helps Canva Code iterate

Presentation approach:

Host a "Study Tool Showcase" where students briefly demo their creations for the class, explaining what they built and why they chose that format for their content. Alternatively, create a shared class folder where all study tools live—students can then use each other's resources when preparing for assessments, turning individual projects into a collaborative study bank.

Marking rubric:

• Content accuracy and completeness (30%)
• Appropriate tool selection for the content type (20%)
• Customization and design quality (20%)
• Functionality and user experience (15%)
• Reflection on learning process (15%)

Reflection prompts:

• Why did you choose the study tool format you selected? How does it fit your content?
• What did you learn about your subject while creating this tool that you might not have learned just by reading notes?
• How did you refine your Canva Code prompt to get the result you wanted?
• Would you use your own study tool to prepare for a test? Why or why not?

To challenge students:

Have advanced students create multiple interconnected study tools that cover a unit comprehensively—perhaps flashcards for vocabulary, a sorting game for categorization, and a matching challenge for application. They could also explore the "Show code" option to see the actual code behind their creation and make manual tweaks, or design study tools for younger students in the school, requiring them to think about accessibility and age-appropriate content.

To make this activity easier:

Provide a prompt template students can customize with their own content: "Create an interactive flashcard set about [TOPIC] with [NUMBER] cards including [LIST KEY TERMS]." Start with a whole-class creation where everyone builds the same study tool together before attempting independent work. For students who need support, allow pairs or small groups to collaborate on a single tool.

To flex this recipe for different subject areas:

• Math: Students create flashcards for formulas or order of operations, sorting games for classifying shapes or number types, or matching challenges pairing equations with their solutions
• Science: Build vocabulary matching for unit terms, sorting games for classification (elements, animal types, states of matter), or flashcards for processes and definitions
• World Languages: Create flashcards for vocabulary with translations, matching games for verb conjugations, or sorting activities grouping words by gender or tense

First, check whether Canva Code is enabled for students at your school—if not, you can still create study tools for your class or request access through your admin. Once you're set up, try Canva Code yourself with a simple prompt like "Create an interactive flashcard game" and see what it generates. Demo it for students and let them loose on their own content

Share your students' study tool creations by tagging @CanvaEdu on X or posting them in the Facebook Teachers Community⁠(opens in a new tab or window).

Ready to create your own classroom recipe? Submit your innovative Canva classroom activities⁠(opens in a new tab or window) and you could be the next to be featured!