Research Paper Writing PowerPoint for Middle Grades. This PowerPoint will walk your students through the BASICS of doing research and writing a research paper. Includes the purpose of research, selecting a topic, making source cards and note cards, taking notes, creating an outline, drafting, writing a bibliography, sources to use, and avoiding plagiarism. 27 slides. - HappyEdugator

Strong Verb Sentences and Paragraphs PowerPoint. Teach students to use strong verbs in their writing and avoid "dead" verbs. Sentence and paragraph practice for writing improvement, based on common core. Students can practice using a variety of vivid verbs to bring their sentences and paragraphs to life. This works as a great mini-lesson. Some teachers like to have mock funerals for the "dead" verbs to put them to rest forevermore. Revised and improved with new content and animated graphics! Enjoy! Updated August 2014. - HappyEdugator

End of Year Math Activity PowerPoint - Imaginary Vacation. PowerPoint takes students on an end of the year imaginary summer vacation to the tropical island of Hawaii, where they will complete a variety of activities involving concepts such as ratios, fractions, decimals, percentages and geometric interpretation. The five activities culminate in a writing activity for their math journal where they will have to connect math to the real world. Animation will keep students engaged, and a slide with the answer follows each activity so students can check and get immediate feedback. Editable for your classroom use. 15 slides. - HappyEdugator

Back to School Classroom Expectations PowerPoint. Just what you need at the beginning of the year. Use at Open House, Back to School Night, or Parent Night. A basic slideshow template of classroom expectations for students at the beginning of the year. Fill in your own specifics. Back to school expectations include behavior, routines, etc. Project it on your SmartBoard for the first day of school. Editable. Revise for yourself as necessary. I also play it continuously looping at Open House at individual student computers, set up like kiosks. - HappyEdugator

Nonfiction Vocabulary You Should Know Game Show PowerPoint presentation. A teaching game on vocabulary used in a nonfiction unit of study of informational text. 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. Good review for standardized testing. Reading more nonfiction is essential to the common core standards. Use for fun test prep. Prepare your students for the terminology. Supports common core state standards. RI.4.4, RI.5.4, RI.6.4, RI.7.4

Veterans Day Word Scramble and Veteran's Day Word Search. Fun word puzzles for Veterans Day. This word scramble has 16 words related to Veterans Day - such as heroes, honor, patriotic, military, veteran, etc. Like a jumble, students have to unscramble the letters to come up with the words. The Word Search has 24 words hidden in the puzzle. This is a fun activity that helps develop vocabulary, word recognition, and sorting and classification skills. Answer keys are provided. - Happy Edugator

End of the Year Poems. PowerPoint or Printables. Five original poems and photos to help you say good-bye to your students at the end of the year. Project on a whiteboard on the last day, or print them out on index cards to make inexpensive good-bye gifts. On PowerPoint, not PDF, so you can adjust your formatting to meet your needs. In color and plain black and white. Editing allowed for your classroom use only. Happy summer! - HappyEdugator

Biography Poster Person Project with Rubric. This biography project gives students a choice of making a poster person, poster, or diarama. Rubric provides students a guideline for expectations. Students must summarize in at least 4-6 paragraphs what they find out about their person, and the information on the poster should be legible and neat. They must also include the sources where they found the information on the back page the biography. Good project to do around President's Day, but the project doesn't have to be limited to Presidents. Editable format for you to make adjustments for your class. - HappyEdugator

Reading Strategies - Active Reading Strategies Concept Map. Graphic organizer can be blown up into a poster, used as a transparency, or projected on your LCD. The six active reading strategies on the map are Connect, Predict, Visualize, Question, Clarify, and Evaluate. Students learn what active reading strategies good readers use. Based on a beetle or bug theme. Includes a motivational poster with a BEETLE theme. Color and black and white versions. Here is my BEETLE acronym - BE EDUCATED EXPECT TO LEARN EAGERLY! :) - HappyEdugator

Exit Slip - Cell Phone Ticket Out. Use this exit slip summarizer sheet as a summarizing activity. Have students write you a text message on the phone screen to summarize what they learned from the lesson or ask any questions they still have. Can be used as a quick informal assessment of student learning. - HappyEdugator

Data Analysis - Task Cards. Supports common core state standards. 30 task cards on data collection and data analysis, answer recording sheet, and answer key. Tasks includes finding range,median, mode and mean of a set of data, creating pictographs, interpreting line plots, stem and leaf plots, bar graphs, circle graphs, box and whisker plots, probability, random and biased samples. - HappyEdugator • CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B.4 Display numerical data in plots on a number line, including dot plots, histograms, and box plots. • CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B.5 Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context, such as by: • CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B.5a Reporting the number of observations. • CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B.5b Describing the nature of the attribute under investigation, including how it was measured and its units of measurement. • CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B.5c Giving quantitative measures of center (median and/or mean) and variability (interquartile range and/or mean absolute deviation), as well as describing any overall pattern and any striking deviations from the overall pattern with reference to the context in which the data were gathered. • CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B.5d Relating the choice of measures of center and variability to the shape of the data distribution and the context in which the data were gathered. • CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.A.2 Understand that a set of data collected to answer a statistical question has a distribution which can be described by its center, spread, and overall shape. • CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.A.3 Recognize that a measure of center for a numerical data set summarizes all of its values with a single number, while a measure of variation describes how its values vary with a single number. CCSS.Math.Content.7.SP.B.3 Informally assess the degree of visual overlap of two numerical data distributions with similar variabilities, measuring the difference between the centers by expressing it as a multiple of a measure of variability.

Use these superhero themed back to school classroom rules for your super classroom! Rules are simple: Respect Others, Work Quietly, Follow Directions, Raise Your Hand, Hands to Yourself, Be Safe - Walk, Don't Run, and Keep Toys and Gum at Home. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Use these back to school how we go home cards to help you identify who goes where at the end of the day. You can print these out, laminate, and make a clip chart to hang by your door and use clothespins with student names to mark who goes where. You can also put these up as posters around the room, and student then go to the designated areas while they wait for dismissal. You can also make them as tags to clip on students or wear as necklaces the first day of school. You can hold them up as signs when a group is called. Many uses...fun superhero theme. - HappyEdugator

Context Clues Word Study Worksheet. This context clues sheet can be used as students read. They can chart the unknown word, the sentence in which it appears, make a prediction on the meaning, and record the actual meaning of the new word. Supports common core! - 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.

PowerPoint Timer! Classroom Management PowerPoint Timer. Set for any time up to 1 hour. Keep students on task with this countdown clock. The PowerPoint slides count down from 60 minutes all the way to "None." Set it for any time up to 60 minutes. It has a 2 minute warning (with a sound effect) as well to give students advance notice that time will be up soon. It can be used for timing students for many different activities including cooperative learning time, group work, independent work, timed tests, etc. A great visual aid for teaching students how to pace themselves for state tests. Just project it up on the Smartboard for all students to see. It doesn't have to be set always at 60 minutes: it can be set at any interval between 1 and 60 minutes and transitions slides each minute. Good classroom management technique to keep students on task.

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.

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

September 11 PowerPoint. Patriot Day, September 11th. PowerPoint on September 11, 2001 has over a hundred slides with photos of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania crash site of Flight 93. I like to play it with the music of Paul McCartney's "Freedom" and Neil Young's "Let's Roll." (Music must be purchased separately due to copyright laws) The anniversary of that tragic day is coming up. This will help your students understand the immensity and seriousness of the attacks on 9/11. Most middle schoolers were not even born when it happened, and although some of them have heard about it, most of them think this is ancient history. Have your Language Arts students write about what they feel after watching the photo slide show. This is good for Social Studies or History teachers as well. Slides advance automatically, but you can pause if needed. Quick review questions near the end. EDITABLE...some images may be distrubing for little ones, so I have put it in an editable format so that you can remove slides as desired. - HappyEdugator

Evaluating an Argument - Supports Common Core! Use around Earth Day, or any time you study nonfiction. PowerPoint slides helps students understand how to evaluate an argument, a critical reading skill. Students learn that evaluate means to judge a selection by looking for the author's main point, whether it is supported by evidence and facts, and whether the author argues against opposing arguments. Practice exercise with informational text included. Students will read and evaluate the argument from an excerpt of the book Green Planet Rescue by Robert Halpern. Good practice of common core standards and appropriate for Earth Day, too. Background vocabulary is endangered, species, and habitat. - HappyEdugator Aligned to Common Core Standards RI 7.1, RI 7.2, RI 7.3, RI 7.5, 7.6, 7.8, RI 8.1, 8.2, 8.5, 8.6, 8.8 Supports College and Career Readiness Standards grades 6-12 for drawing evidence from informational text to support analysis and reflection

Five Themes of Geography Handouts and Graphic Organizer Set. Included here are two handouts explaining the five basic themes of geography: location (absolute and relative), place , movement, relationships (human interaction with environment) and regions. Includes 6 different graphic organizers to use for any geographical region of study. Graphic organizer 1 - students use this organizer to list their area of study, describe the absolute location on one side and the relative location on the other Graphic organizer 2 - students can use this organizer to describe their area of study with descriptions of landforms, bodies of water, and human life Graphic organizer 3 - students can use this organizer to describe how the people in their area of study interact with the environment Graphic organizer 4 - students can use this organizer to describe how people, goods, and ideas move in, through, and out of their area of study Graphic organizer 5 - students can use this organizer to describe the region of their area of study Graphic organizer 6 - students can use this organizer to compare their area of study to their home state - HappyEdugator