Show Not Tell PowerPoint. How to use the "Show Not Tell" strategy in creative writing. Imagery and sensory language create mental pictures. Strong verbs replace dead verbs. Helps student write with more descriptive words and vivid language. Animated graphics. Practice slides included. - HappyEdugator

Literary Elements of a Short Story PowerPoint. Literary terms and elements include characters, plot, conflict, setting, theme, resolution, denouement. Explains the critical parts of a short story that students need to be able to identify when they read, as well as incorporate into their own writing. Quiz at the end. Good for test prep Supports common core standards. 16 slides - HappyEdugator

Drama - The Emperor's New Clothes. This PowerPoint is a fun reader's theater or classroom play based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale that can be performed by students on short notice with limited space and props. Cast of characters, props, and stage directions make it easy and entertaining. Vocabulary can be discussed during a preview. Print the slides out as handouts (Print-Settings-Outline - to print out like a script in black and white) for your students and project the play as it is being performed.You can also just project it to save copies. I have students read their handouts silently first and look for words that are unfamiliar. Some possible words are highlighted on the slide show. Then discuss the unknown words and use them in a performance! I used this fairy tale theater as a bridge between a drama unit and a fairy tale and folk tale unit. And don't worry...no one has to get undressed! :-) - HappyEdugator

Halloween Smart Board Activities - Four different Halloween ELA activities for your Smartboard. Sort the Halloween vocabulary into Parts of Speech, complete a fill-in the blank or cloze story, put together some Halloween antonyms, and solve the Halloween crossword puzzle. All interactive activities. Answers can be checked right away for immediate feedback. - HappyEdugator

Poems Graphic Organizer. Using the acronym POEMS, this poetry graphic organizer allows students to show what they already know about poetry and poetic devices, including figurative language such as personification, onomatopoeia, metaphors, and similes. Useful as a poetry preview activity. Students take the wordsplash of vocabulary words, and match them to the graphic organizer. (Hint: The font of words that go together is the same! See if they can figure that out for themselves.) This can be used as an introduction to a poetry unit, and as a pre-assessment which can give you an idea if your students know anything at all before you even start. Use the graphic organizer to complete the study guides that are included. - HappyEdugator

Poetry - Using Emotion to Create Poetry PowerPoint. Graphics and animations will engage your students as they learn about poetry writing. Includes a definition of poetry, explanation of figurative language, imagery, and sound devices, a list of human emotions, and a step by step approach to writing a sensory poem. You can also print out the included poetry frame if you desire. When students are finished, they will have created their own poem! Fun way to get reluctant poets to writing. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Mother's Day Verb Poem. Mothers are always doing things! They are very busy. Students can let their mom know they notice by writing a Mother’s Day Verb Poem. They can pay attention to what their mom does, and collect the verbs! Use the verbs in the poem to make a special poem about mom. If students can’t think of any verbs, there is a verb bank for ideas. Includes directions and a list of verbs, and a template to fill in with verbs. Write a verb poem for mom to let her know you notice how much she does. - HappyEdugator

Correlative Conjunctions Practice Worksheet. Worksheet on correlative conjunctions. Definition, Examples, and practice identifying the conjunctions in a sentence and what they connect. Writing practice using correlative conjunctions in sentences. Key inlcuded. Supports common core. - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.1e Use correlative conjunctions (e.g., either/or, neither/nor).

Poetry - Five Senses Poem. Handout, brainstorming pages, and final poem publishing page. Help students get started using sensory language and begin writing poetry using vivid imagery. Guides students with a format for writing a poem using their senses. Examples will get them thinking. You will be amazed at some of the original and creative poems you can get students to write using this format. - HappyEdugator

Christmas Activities. Fun Christmas activities for the last week of school before the Christmas break. Six different sheets that are fun and require critical thinking! Three writing prompts, a math square, a wordsearch, and a scrambled story included, with answer keys. Print and go. No prep. Enjoy and merry Christmas! - HappyEdugator

Using an Almanac Scavenger Hunt. A worksheet activity with ten interesting questions that students should be able to find the answer to in most almanacs. Have students work in pairs, partners, or cooperative groups with a class set of almanacs and look up the information. This is good hands-on practice of research skills. They need to be familiar with how to find information in an almanac. If they can't find the information, of course, a key is included. :-) - HappyEdugator

Punctuation - Hyphens, Dashes, and Semicolons PowerPoint. Interactive PowerPoint presentation with animation and sound. Explains the usage of hyphens, dashes, and semicolons, and then students can practice punctuating the sentences that follow, and checking their answers. At the end there is an answer key to check their work. This can also be played as a game by dividing the class into teams and teams submit their answers-the team with them most correct answers wins! 53 slides. -HappyEdugator

Reading Activities Menu Based on Learning Style. This reading activities menu can be used to accompany any novel, play, or short story. Use for differentiated instruction. The printable handout gives possible project choices for students based on their learning styles: auditory, visual, or kinesthetic. Level of difficulty from easy (light blue) to difficult (dark blue). Students may use this to select book projects based on their unique learning style, or teachers may use it as a guide to making learning style based assignments. Color and black and white versions.

TEST PREP Get a High Score on the Test! ELA PowerPoint. Test prep interactive presentation with practice questions and feedback on superlative adjectives, verb and pronoun usage, troublesome areas for students in middle grades, especially 7th grade. Also, these slides can be used to study and prepare for any state test in Language Arts, and 6th and 8th graders can use it, too. Help students get ready to take a standardized test! Supports common core standards. Updated January 2015 - HappyEdugator

The Cay - Multiple Meaning Vocabulary Game. Play this game before, during, or after reading the novel The Cay, by Theodore Taylor. Using multiple meaning vocabulary words from the novel The Cay, students play a fun card game that makes them read and practice vocabulary words with multiple meanings. - HappyEdugator Directions: 1. Cut out the Blue Vocabulary Cards and print out on cardstock. Laminate. 2. Cut out the individual sentence strips for each vocabulary word. Print out on cardstock and laminate. 3. Game play: 2-4 players. Shuffle cards. Turn over Blue Vocabulary cards so they are upside down in the center of the table. Deal out the sentence strips. The youngest person turns over one of the Blue vocabulary cards. The player who first realizes he has the sentence strip for that card must call out the word and then read the sentence strip out loud. He may then discard his sentence strip, and turn over the next card. Play continues until all the vocabulary cards have been played. The player with the fewest sentence strips left in his hand wins! - HappyEdugator

Back to School Language Arts Survey. Get to know your students when you go back to school. This is a beginning of the year activity to do with your students to learn more about them and their attitutes toward reading and language arts. It's like an anticipation guide for the year! Have them respond to the statements as either true or false or sometimes. This will help you get to know your students better. - HappyEdugator

Hard G or Soft G Word Sort. Is it hard or is it soft? Print out these cards, laminate, and students can sort them into words that begin with hard or soft G. 28 cards - 14 colorful and bright cards of each sound. Includes Center sign, Sorting Mat, and Answer Key and Directions for Teacher. Choose color or white background to save ink. English can be difficult for a young child because some of the letters make a variety of different sounds. It is important that children be exposed to them. The purpose of this activity is for the student to divide these cards into two groups: those with a hard G sound, as in garbage, and ones with a soft G sound, as in giraffe. - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3a Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.

Character Project and Adjectives List. Students create a fiction character for a new story. They must use 10+ adjectives from the provided list to create traits and an interesting personality for their character, and write detailed sentences to describe. Students will also make a drawing to describe what their character looks like. Included is the project handout with directions, an adjective list, and a writing checklist. The adjective list and writing checklist are also useful for any creative writing activity. Great to help students develop a character which they later introduce in a narrative. Supports common core! - HappyEdugator

Spectacular Word Choice Vocabulary Builder - Fall Theme. A Writing Assignment that builds vocabulary on each handout. When you go back to school, these 4 word lists will have students thinking and writing. On each handout, students are challenged with some "spectacular" vocabulary which they will need to define and then produce some original writing using their new found words.- HappyEdugator

The Cay by Theodore Taylor - Hurricane Brochure Research Project. After reading the novel, students will choose an island or region to research and write a hurricane safety brochure for the residents of their selected region. They must include a graph showing the costliest and deadlest hurricanes in history, a paragraph describing the region's history with hurricanes, a resident preparedness list, a checklist for items and supplies needed, a map with an evacuation route, a what to do and what not to do list, and a list of agencies or shelters where residents can find assistance. Includes project assignment handout, grading sheets, peer rubric, tri-fold template, and teacher directions. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator