Easter acrostic poem. Do you need a quick fun activity for Easter? This is a short 9 slide PowerPoint explaining how to write an acronym poem, also called an acrostic poem. This would be a good warm-up activity to use around Easter holidays. Included is a definition of an acronym or acrostic poem, two example poems using egg and Easter, an Easter vocabulary slide, and a slide prompting students to write their own poem. You could also print this last slide for students to fill in. - HappyEdugator

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter is a children's classic that is especially fun at Easter time. This PowerPoint will help your students understand the vocabulary in the story. Great story for Easter or Spring. Share this classic with your students, and use the PowerPoint slides to discuss difficult vocabulary as you read. The slides are in alphabetical order, but you can reorder the slides if you wish to present them in the order of the story. Each slide has the word, a definition, a graphic, and a sentence from the story. Use them before, during, or after reading to increase comprehension and expand vocabulary. ©2017 HappyEdugator.

One of my favorite Easter activities is reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. It is a children's classic that is especially fun to read at Easter time. This PowerPoint will help your students understand the vocabulary in the story. Great story for Easter or Spring. Share this classic with your students, and use the PowerPoint slides to discuss difficult vocabulary as you read. The slides are in alphabetical order, but you can reorder the slides if you wish to present them in the order of the story. Each slide has the word, a definition, a graphic, and a sentence from the story. Use them before, during, or after reading to increase comprehension and expand vocabulary. Includes a link to the story if you don't have a copy.

Practice making contractions with this fun and interactive PowerPoint for reinforcing this critical Language Arts skill of combining words correctly and using apostrophes. Great for review and test prep, too. This interactive Contractions PowerPoint slides explain contractions, apostrophes, when to use them and how to make them. 20 different contractions to make. Students write the contraction on their white boards, and then teacher can click ahead to check. There is also a set of flash cards included. Teachers can print out the sheets of cards, pass out to students for them to cut out and match up, and send them home in a zipper plastic bag for more at home practice. 34 slides. ©2017 HappyEdugator. All of the activities included in this product are the intellectual properties of Deborah Hayes aka HappyEdugator.

Alphabet writing! Students can practice their handwriting and letter writing skills with these sheets which go through the entire alphabet from a to z. Trace the letter, then practice writing on the lines given. Color the picture that goes with the letter, too. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.1.A Print many uppercase and lowercase letters. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.1.A Print all uppercase and lowercase letters. ©2016, 2017 HappyEdugator. This product is the intellectual property of Deborah Hayes aka HappyEdugator.

This test prep packet has 25 terms essential for success on standardized tests. List of terms and definitions to use as a reference sheet, student study guide page, 25 colorful posters which can also be projected on your whiteboard, a writing activity sheet, and an I Have Who Has game! Learning the words that are used in test questions is a great test taking strategy. Fun way to expand student vocabulary of testing words and testing vocabulary. ©2017 HappyEdugator.

Poetry vs. Prose Chart and Word Lists. A good word sort activity to use when introducing poetry to your students. Students will have to categorize the terms as either used in poems, prose, or both and put them in a chart. This is an activating thinking strategy and pretest which can also tell you what your students know and don't know about poetry and prose. Two word lists for differentiation. ©2012, 2017 HappyEdugator. All of the activities included in this product are the intellectual properties of Deborah Hayes aka HappyEdugator.

Help your students build vocabulary by matching antonyms in a classic I Have...Who Has game. Includes antonym word lists to pass out as study guides for students to use for discussion and review, Also includes blank cards for you to add your own words or make your own game. Have students call out the word with I Have...and ask Who has...for the antonym of the word. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.5c Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homographs) to better understand each of the words. ©2017 HappyEdugator.

Five reading comprehension passages with questions about main idea, inference, context clues, and making comparisons. Students will have to use skills like referring back to the text and making inferences to answer questions about the reading passage. Includes narrative and informational text. Supports common core. Print and go. No Prep. Answer keys included. ©2017 HappyEdugator. This product is the intellectual property of Deborah Hayes aka HappyEdugator.

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

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury PowerPoint. Slides are set up for an after reading cooperative learning activity or learning centers for small groups. May also be used instead on a projector as 9 different assignments for the short story. Common core standards based activities for the following skills: identify prepositional phrases, figurative language, context clues, vivid verbs, sentence structure, sensory language, implicit and explicit details and inferences, characterization and setting. Directions for group activity: Print out and laminate the following slides to use as posters. Place each poster on a wall above a sheet of chart paper. Divide class into small groups. (There are 9 stations to visit, so groups of three will work well with a class of 27 students.) Each group gets a different colored marker to use. Allow groups to rotate through the charts. You may wish to set a timer and have them change at regular intervals. Provide additional chart paper if needed. Summarize the activity when finished by discussing the student answers with the whole group. - HappyEdugator

Shades of Meaning Verb Cards - JUMP. Cut out and laminate these 16 different cards illustrating different synonyms of the verb "jump." 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 state 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

Reading - 25 Word Abstract Summarizing Activity. Use close reading and cooperative group evaluation to create a terrific summary of expository text. This PowerPoint will help teachers scaffold the process of summarization. Can be used as a group activity on summarizing expository text, or can be adapted to use individually with students who need extra help or are in homeschool. Students will learn about the reading compreshension strategy of summarizing. They will learn to write a 25 word abstract as they do this lesson. The slides introduce the concept of summarizing, and then walk students through the activity step by step. Students will first read and highlight a short (about 500-1000 words) piece of expository text. (Not included...you should select something to read that goes with your curriculum) Then they will share what they have highlighted in their groups, discuss what they think are the main points and key terms, and then write their 25 word summaries. They will then go back to their groups to share, and then collaborate to make a goup summary. Groups will report out to the class and the class will then rate the summaries and write a rationale for how they rated them and what features of an abstract created the most clear and concise summary of the text for the reader. Supports common core standards. 13 slides. - HappyEdugator

Dictionary Guide Words and Thesaurus Practice Worksheets. These worksheets are actually a real hands-on activity for students to use dictionaries. Students need to look up the words and find the guide words for each page. They will learn how guidewords are important to finding entries in a dictionary. Use with any dictionary. Key is not included since the answers will vary depending on the dictionary used. Includes one worksheet for dictionary guide words, and an addtional two page worksheet for work with a thesaurus. - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.4e Use glossaries and beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.4d Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.4c Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.4c Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.

Nonfiction Vocabulary You Should Know Test. Goes with my Nonfiction Vocabulary You Should Know PowerPoint, but can be used separately. Includes nonfiction, author's purpose, exposition, description, narration, and persuasion, types of nonfiction selections and their descriptions, nonfiction text structures, the difference between dialogue and dialect,as well as stereotype and bias. 25 fill-in the blank style questions with a word bank. Reading more nonfiction is essential to the common core standardsthat are assessed on many state tests. Prepare your students for the terminology. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

Play Dough Mats - ABC and Numbers. Alphabet and numbers 1 -10. Make play doh, and have fun learning letters and numbers with hands-on play dough mats and edible play dough! Includes recipe directions on how to make edible play-dough, a numbers 1-10 learning mat, a learning mat for each number 1 -10, and a learning mat for each letter of the alphabet. Promotes literacy in math ( number recognition) and reading ( letter recognition). Enlarge, laminate, and have learners make their letters and numbers on the mats. ABC mats have pictures of things they can create to represent their letter as well. Keep play-doh soft in resealable plastic containers or baggies. In summary, you get: Directions for number mats and alphabet mats A recipe for edible play dough 10 Number mats Number mats have numbers represented with apples and fingers 1 mat with all ten numbers 26 alphabet play dough mats Each alphabet mat has a picture with the beginning sound to help with letter and sound association Uppercase and lowercase letters on each alphabet play dough mat - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1b Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1d Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet. CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4 Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

Letter Sounds PowerPoint. Consonant sounds and vowel sounds - long and short. This can be projected on a whiteboard or you can print these out on index cards and laminate. . Beyond just letter recognition of the alphabet, saying consonant sounds is the first step in learning to read and the first evidence of phonemic awareness. Carefully go through each letter, and assess how well each student knows the consonant sounds. Explain to them that if they have difficulty remembering any of the consonant sounds, they should remember the key word pictured with each letter. The key word for b, for example, is bus. Avoid as much as possible adding the uh sound after the consonant sounds, so that students will have less difficulty blending words when they start putting letters together. Useful for Letter of the Week activities. You can project this PowerPoint on a Smartboard, Whiteboard, make transparencies, or print out the slides on cardstock for flashcards and laminate for use in centers. Supports common core standards. Includes sound cards for all the consonants, and sound cards for the vowels a, e, i, o and u.

Halloween Spooky Synonyms PowerPoint and Writing Activity. Halloween themed PowerPoint about synonyms. Supports common core. First slides explain synonyms, give examples of synonyms, and why choosing the right words and using a thesaurus is useful when writing. Several colorful and animated slides then provide synonyms for common Halloween words such as candy, costume, scary, etc. The last slide is a writing activity where students use their new found vocabulary to write a Halloween story. A fun autumn activity to get your students writing. We had fun making this a listening and speaking activity. When a synonym slide came up, we would say the synonyms, and then I would ring a bell. They had 30 seconds to turn to their neighbor and answer the question at the bottom of the slide. After 30 seconds, I rang the bell again and they had to stop talking! Then we would repeat on the next slide. When we got to the activity slide, I let them tell their story to each other first before they had to write it. - HappyEdugator Standards: W.4.3, W.5.3d, W.6.3d, W.7.3d, W.8.3d

Fairy Tales Reading Activity. Elements Chart. Students read 5 fairy tales out of the fifteen suggested choices and 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 website 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

Using Context Clues - Text Signals Handout. Explains how context clues and text signals can help students figure out the meaning of unknown words when they are reading. Includes signal words and sample sentences for explanation/definition, synonym/restatement, antonym/contrast, and cause/effect context clues. - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.4a Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.4a Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.