Rebus Puzzles 2 - a fun critical thinking activity. Figure out the word puzzles. Great to do with partners, or use as a warm up. Print and go, Works especially well for gifted and talented students who enjoy challenges, but will work with other student populations as well. Also includes a blank rebus puzzle sheet for students to create their own. Enjoy! - Happyedugator

Coordinate Adjectives and Cumulative Adjectives Worksheets. Practice for identifying cumulative and coordinate adjectives, and placing commas in between coordinate adjectives. Includes practice sheet and 2 worksheets, with keys. Supports common core standards. L.7.2a Updated February 2015. - HappyEdugtator

Poetry Anthology Anchor Activity and Rubric. Students create a poetry anthology or poetry portfolio. Handout is the complete assignment for a poetry anthology for a poetry unit, including rubric. Give this handout and rubric to your students if you wish them to work on a poetry anthology project, which can also be used as an anchor activity to work on when other work is complete. - HappyEdugator

Where the Red Fern Grows Novel Study and Supporting Materials. All kinds of resources to use when teaching the novel Where the Red Fern Grows. Included are chapter by chapter fill-in-the-blank questions (with answer keys) for review of the chapters, as well as multiple choice comprehension questions, vocabulary, quizzes, tests, and activities. I have my students keep a table of contents in their notebook, and do the activities in chapter order. Enjoy.

Book Project Rubric. This rubric was created to go with my Book project for independent reading assignment, but works well with almost any book report. One version has a word count included, and the other version does not, for differentiation. Both versions are included here. - HappyEdugator

Sentence structure PowerPoint game. A fun interactive way to practice identifying sentence structure. Students are given two sentences and have thirty seconds to decide their sentence structure...simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex. They can work with a partner and use wipe-off white boards or write the answers down on paper. After time is up, the answers will disappear. (Timer is built in) Click again to check answers. Advance slide and click to start with a new set of sentences. Can also be used for team play. 36 sentences in all. Supports common core state standards. - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.1b Choose among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal differing relationships among ideas.

Christmas Around the World. Merry Christmas! PowerPoint on traditions and customs of the Christmas holiday in 19 different countries: Canada, England, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Japan, China, Vietnam, Australia, India, and the United States. Great introduction to your Christmas Around the World unit, or use as a follow up activity. Animation and lots of interesting fun facts! Kids will enjoy this before Christmas break. Great way to practice reading informational text. Fun! Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

One Hundred Essential Questions for Language Arts. Vitally Important questions for students in critical areas of reading, writing, and grammar. Not open-ended questions as named in some specific curriculum programs, just essential questions for learning the content. This list of one hundred essential questions can be used to drive lesson plans in an English Language Arts classroom. Good for back to school. You can give it as a handout at the beginning of the year and focus students on what is essential to know and what they will learn. This is also a useful tool at the end of the year for review for state standardized testing. It will help you focus on learning what is really important in the areas of grammar and writing.

Literary Terms for Fiction Handout. This handout has 47 essential literary terms defined in easy to understand language that students should be familiar with when taking standardized tests. Great for test prep! Some of the litereature terms include elements of a short story, such as exposition, climax, resolution; elements of plot, conflict and theme. Supports common core standards. Goes with my Literary Terms for Fiction TEST. - HappyEdugator

Elements in Fairy Tales Chart. Have students read 5 fairy tales out of the fifteen suggested choices and have them mark with an x the elements and characteristics of fairy tales they find in their stories.Students can read the fairy tales online at the suggested site and complete this as a webquest, or you may prefer to provide books for them to peruse. Either way, they will see through discovery that fairy tales have many characteristics in common. - HappyEdugator

Strong Verb List. Use strong verbs to enhance writing. A great revision strategy is to look for ways to make verbs more descriptive. This list of strong action verbs is a handy reference to use when a better word is needed. Students can keep these sheets in their writer's journal or notebook. These words can also make a great word wall. - HappyEdugator

Complete Subject and Simple Subject Worksheet. Understanding basic sentences. The first step in finding subjects and predicates is to be able to find the simple subject and complete subject. This worksheet explains simple and complete subjects in simple, easy to understand terms and then give students fifteen sentences for practice. Students like using highlighters instead of circling the simple subject. Answer key included. - HappyEdugator

Martin Luther King Jr. PowerPoint and MLK Writing Assignment. This PowerPoint presentation (with a writing assignment) has 30 slides depicting the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from birth to his death, and his legacy. There are many photographs and some audio from his "I have a dream" speech. Students will learn about the life of MLK, his influence, and how he dreamed of a brotherhood of man. There is a writing assignment for the last slide, which is a prompt that can be used for any grade level with expectations of the complexity of the writing the difference between a lower grade answer and a higher grade answer. There are four options for student choice. Editable for your own class and may be customized for your class only. Technology note- If you are using a PowerPoint Viewer instead of the full PowerPoint program, I have discovered that some of the text will disappear. Please make sure you have a full version of PowerPoint before you download.

Business Letter Format. This business letter format shows that there are 6 parts to a business letter: heading, inside address, salutation, body, closing, and signature. Give the handout to your students as a model, and then let them compose their own business letter. Supports common core standards. - HappyEdugator

A Beginning of the Year Me Bag Activity - a great back to school activity that helps everyone get to know each other at the beginning of the year. This All About Me Bag activity includes letter to parents with calendar, assignment reminder sheets, and rubric. Includes an original "me" bag poem to paste on the bag that students can read aloud and two writing sheets. Promotes creative thinking.

Reading Club or Book Club Activities for the Entire School Year. When you go back to school, are you planning to have a reading club or a book club start at the beginning of the year? Either in your classroom, or school-wide? This 34 page packet is what you need to start a successful reading club. This is a year's worth of activities for a Reading Club. The topics are planned for September through June. Everyone starts with a membership card, and to stay an active member, each student reads books on the theme of the month. The printables included here are: a student letter with membership card, a parent letter explaining the requirements, letters home with signature lines for books read for each theme, badges for monthly bulletin boards, and certificates of achievement for each month. There is also a super student award for the end of the year and a tic-tac-toe board for students to complete that will encourage them to read books from a variety of genres. Start your club anytime and enjoy the reading! 34 pages. - HappyEdugator

Language Difficulty Indicators Handout. FREE A list of 16 indicators, such as limited vocabulary or delayed responses, that a child is having difficulties processing language, and may need special services or extra help. - HappyEdugator

Public Speaking PowerPoint - How to write and present a speech. Presentation explains purpose ( Persuade, Inform, and Entertain), points to consider such as subject, audience, personality, and occasion. Discusses the process of planning a speech, including the body, the introduction, and the conclusion, writing an outline, and preparing the delivery. 25 slides.

Writing Activities - 21 Writing prompts for engaging narrative, expository, and even poetry about trash. Reduce, reuse, recycle writing ideas. Fun to use anytime, but also a good Earth Day project or when studying ecology or conservation. Differentiated writing activities that can be used in various ways for whole group, cooperative learning, or as a literacy center. You can show the individual slides to a whole group as a class writing activity. Also, you might prefer to print the slides and divide the activities between small groups, and give students a selection of cards to choose from. In addition, the slides can be printed out on index cards and laminated to be used in a literary writing center. If you make a center, consider putting a trash can in it filled with interesting junk to inspire writing ideas. However, you decide to use them, I hope you will enjoy the wonderful writing your students will create, and that they will enjoy writing and be proud of their accomplishments. A rubric is included on the last slide. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Shades of Meaning Verb Cards - RUN. Cut out and laminate these 16 different cards illustrating different synonyms of the verb "run." Helps students understand connotation. With guidance and support from adults, students acquire new vocabulary by defining word relationships and nuances in word meanings, sorting words into categories, choosing and acting out the different meanings. Aligns to Common Core Standards CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.5d Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.5d Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.5b Distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs (e.g., toss, throw, hurl) and closely related adjectives (e.g., thin, slender, skinny, scrawny). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.5c Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe states of mind or degrees of certainty (e.g., knew, believed, suspected, heard, wondered). Additionally, words can be used for spelling practice, writing practice, and word walls. Includes definitions for the teacher. - HappyEdugator