Imagery with Weather Poems! Have your students create weather poems using descriptive adjectives and imagery. Three different poem formats support differentiated instruction. After reading a story or novel in which weather plays a major role in developing the plot (such as the short story “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury or the novel The Cay by Theodore Taylor), have your students write weather poems. Discuss how to create imagery using words that appeal to the senses. They will enjoy coming up with vivid adjectives and descriptive language. Ask your students to think of words that will create the best images, or they can look up adjective lists online if they have access to technology. The first format has the most scaffolding for the kids who have trouble putting words on paper. The second format is a little more challenging, and the third one is great for your high achievers. If you prefer, you can also use these in sequence and build up to the higher level thinking format. After your students complete the format, ask them to share, edit and revise, and then type up the poems to publish and make a great display.

2015 Calendar - Free! Enjoy!

Short e Sound - Sounding Out Words PowerPoint. CVC words. Teach reading with phonics and decoding using word families! Short e Word Family. Slides introduce the sound of short e and have students practice blending short e sound with consonants to form one syllable CVC words. Students read the slides and get rewarded with fun shouts and cheers. This is the next step to reading after students learn consonant sounds and the sound of short a. This animated PowerPoint has 17 slides of practice, with a slide of nonsense words and a slide of real words at the end of the presentation for teacher assessment.

Writing Strategies for School Success PowerPoint. Includes back to school writing activities. Writing tips that give students easy to follow instructions for success on school writing assignments. Slides cover how to use effective sentences, an editing checklist, and how to go about writing an assortment of different writing situations, including: comparison/contrast paragraphs, book reports, friendly letters, business letters, expository text giving directions or explanations, selecting a topic for research reports, taking notes, writing an outline, writing a report with a bibliography, taking a test, and conducting and writing interviews

Golf Vocabulary and Quiz. Learn golf vocabulary! Includes a handout for basic vocabulary for the game of golf, like birdie, bogey, eagle, etc., and a short matching quiz over the basic terms. Useful in as a summer golf camp activity or in physical education. Also great for building background knowledge for reading selections that involve the game of golf or when reading biographies of famous players of the game. Key is included. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

ABC PowerPoint Project for Any Novel. This is a final project that will work with any novel. Promotes higher level thinking, creativity, and helps students incorporate technology. During reading and after reading a novel, students can work to create a PowerPoint presentation using the letters of the alphabet to summarize. Pass out the student handout and explain that they are to make 20 slides using letters from the alphabet that describe different parts of the plot. Each slide has five points each for a total of 100 points. The handout is a checklist they can use to monitor their grade. Great to use with gifted students as well. - HappyEdugator

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION Test on Strunk and White -The Elements of Style. This test has students apply the principles of writing English as discussed in The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, the classic writing manual used in high school and college English classes for years. The contents of the book is on Bartlby's website as well. This test has students punctuate sentences, correct errors in usage in sentences, make sentences more interesting by revising, eliminate wordiness by revising, and identify words and phrases that are generally considered not good usage.

Reading - Book Project for Independent Reading. This book project assignment is an alternative to a traditional book report. It gives students nine options for creating a project to demonstrate their independent reading. Better than a book report because students have to be able to convince their teacher that they have actually read the book, or be required to stand before a jury of their peers and prove it in five minutes!! Customizable for your needs. Also availale is an optional rubric for this assignment that you may wish to use: Book Project Rubric.

Irregular Verbs Common in English PowerPoint. 41 slide presentation on the most common irregular verbs in English. Each slide gives the infinitive form of the verb and a short definition, and an example of the past tense and past participle forms of the verbs in a sentence. The slides have fun graphics, sounds, and animations. This is useful for English Language Learners as well as for regular students who want to brush up for standardized tests. Note that thumbnails do not come out accurately- free preview is available. - Happyedugator

Lions - Fun Facts About Lions PowerPoint. Learn about lions! 18 slides of fun facts about lions, which can be used to introduce a animal theme unit of study. Informational text for reading practice. Lots of animated graphics. Learn the differences between African lions and Asian lions. What do lions eat? Where do lions live? Fun for March, which comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Engage students and grab their attention, or build background knowledge for reading books with lions, like Born Free (nonfiction), Lion Boy (fiction), or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (fiction).

Informational Text: Organizing Paragraphs PowerPoint. How to write informational paragraphs. Explains 4 different methods students can use to organize expository paragraphs...accordian style, abbreviations plan, two column notes, or traffic signal. Each method is explained, and the procedure for including reasons, details, facts,explanations and elaborations. Two of these models are perfect for foldable graphic organizers. -

Writing - Effective Expression in Writing PowerPoint. Practice Revising! Test prep! Effective expression in writing helps students understand the main characteristics of effective writing: being consistent, expressing ideas logically, being clear and precise, and following conventions. Students must revise sentences that have specific problems (such as subject-verb agreement, pronoun shifts, fragments...), then check to see if they were right. Animated effects make this a useful interactive tool. Show them the poorly written sentence, let them see if they can figure out what is wrong and fix it, then show them the correction. 20 animated slides with graphics. Notes for the teacher included. Helps prepare for state tests! - HappyEdugator

Literature Circle Jobs - Cooperative Learning Assignments. Literature Circles made easy with assigned jobs. Research shows that children working in cooperative learning groups should have assigned roles and guidelines in order to be highly productive. These printable worksheets will help you organize your groups into 4 distinct roles: The Word Finder, The Discussion Director, The Passage Picker/Summarizer, and the Connector. I have also included an Expectation Grid for all group members to work on together

Sight Words Bingo - Beginning of the Year Sight Word Review Game. Good beginning of the year assessment that is fun for back to school! Pre-Primer and Primer level. 26 cards with high frequency words with a back to school theme for Kindergarten review. You can choose to use the pictures of school supplies as free spaces, or call out the school supplies list as an alternative way to play. Print out on cardstock, laminate, and save pieces in snack baggies. Put everything all together in a page protectore and place in a binder for easy storage. - HappyEdugator

Watch the classic Thanksgiving movie based on the book the Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater. Your students will probably recognize Peter Billingsley, the little boy from the movie A Christmas Story! Use this viewer's guide for before the movie discussion questions, during the movie comprehension quesitons, and a writing activity after viewing. A fun Thanksgiving activity to do on the day before the holiday. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Winter Word Wall - Also Winter Word Sort. A set of 150 cards that have a theme of winter, cold, and staying warm. 75 cards are the words in uppercase letters with a winter background design. 75 cards are the same words in lowercase letters on photo background of the word. May also be used as a matching game or concentration. Can be printed out on cardstock and laminated for future use. The cards can be used as a classroom word wall, a winter word of the day, or as a word sort. Students can sort the words into different categories such as things you wear, things you do, weather, etc. Words can be used to develop vocabulary for reading fluency, or to give students ideas for writing. Blank template for adding your own words included. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Halloween Word Wall Vocabulary Words. 48 word wall words for the Halloween holiday and a blank template you can use to add your own. Decorated with pumpkins, a tombstone, and a black cat. Print out on cardstock and laminate for durability. You can place in a writing center, or use as flash cards, too. 2 per page. Editable for your own classroom use. - HappyEdugator

Billy Budd Final Test - Essay Examination. This is a final essay test or examination for the novel Billy Budd by Herman Melville. There are five questions that are based on theme, symbolism, characterization, and relationships in this classic book. This can be used as a take-home open book examination. Also included is a grading form and a key of possible essay answers.You can use this for backwards design, and use the teacher's guide/answer key to drive your class discussions. Test is editable for your specific needs. -HappyEdugator

Character Education Word of the Month - PowerPoint for Character Education includes a slide defining the character word of the month. Each month has a Character Education Activity and an Award certificate. Each word has a suggested month, but the slides have been left editable so you can rearrange them and edit as needed for your classroom needs. Character Education Words included and suggested months are: Respect - August Responsibility - September Trustworthiness - October Compassion - November Friendship - December Perseverance - January Cooperation - February Patience - March Honesty - April Citizenship - May

Animal Story Starters. Print out these animal story starters on lined paper to supplement your fairy tale unit or jungle theme, or print them all out just for fun. Stimulate imagination and give your students some time for creative writing. Researchers say that writing has become the lost "R" in reading, writing, and 'rithmetic, and suggest that students get more practice writing daily, even over the summer! Writing practice will boost handwriting, grammar, and spelling skills, too. Supports CCSS ( common core state standards ) for narrative writing in grades K-3. Kindergarten children often enjoy dictating stories for adults to write down, and these sheets can be keepsakes of the sweetest memories. Have students draw their own pictures on blank paper if they like, using the cartoon characters as guides.