Adverb Clauses Graphic Organizer. This four quadrant graphic organizer helps explain adverb clauses so students will have a better understanding of how to identify them in a sentence and how to punctuate them as well. First page can be projected while students fill in the blanks on their copy. Advanced students can just fold a piece of paper into quadrants and take notes. Useful as a reference when students are working with adverb clauses. This can also be used as a handout. Supports common core.

Mother's Day - My Mom is the Best Craftivity. Make a poem and a handprint flower poster to give to mom for a great Mother's Day gift. Using extra large construction paper, students make a handprint flower and glue their photo in the center. Then they cut out the stem and leaves and glue them underneath. At the bottom of the poster, they can add their poem. Complete instructions. Materials included: the fill-in the blank poem, leaf pattern, and stem pattern. Other optional ideas also included. Happy Mother's Day! - HappyEdugator

Christmas - Adverb Clauses. Christmas Combining Sentences with Adverb Clauses Activity. Winter practice building sentences with adverb clauses. First sheet is a handout on adverb clauses and common subordinating conjunctions, the second sheet is a practice activity in combining sentences (Christmas theme) and the last page is a key, which you can project with an LCD for students to check sample sentences. I like to assign the practice to groups, but it can be used for individual work as well. Good for keeping on task in December. No prep. Print and go. Key included. Enjoy! - 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

Present Simple and Progressive Verb Tenses PowerPoint. Explains how the present simple and present progressive verb tense is used correctly in the English language. Grammar rules and structure are examined, and examples and graphic organizers show how the verbs are formed in positive sentences, negative sentences, and questions. 18 slides. - HappyEdugator

Classroom Library Sign Out Sheet. This is a colorful classroom sign out sheet you can post in your classroom library to keep track of books checked in and out. I have a class "librarian" manage my checkouts. Students simply write in the title of the book they are borrowing, their name, and the date it was checked out. When the book is returned, they just put the date returned. I use the honor system with my class library, and most students return my books as soon as they finish with them. EDITABLE for your classroom needs. - HappyEdugator

Summer Reading List Grade 7 - 8. A suggested summer reading list to encourage reading. Nice handout to give to parents at the end of the year as a helpful guide to some good literature for young adults to read during the summer. Parents love it! Includes name of book and author. Chosen for the text level of complexity required by the common core standards. Good guide for homeschool parents, too. - HappyEdugator

Reading Response Activity - What's Your Two Cents Worth? Helps students with close reading and writing a response to literature. An active reading activity you can do with a a picture book, short story or even a poem. After reading a story, students have to give their two cents about different parts of a story. Print out sheets for each student. You may choose to print out on card stock and laminate for durability. You may do the same with the sheet of pennies, or you may choose to use real pennies for the activity or have students draw pennines in the boxes. Give each student a copy of the What's Your Two Cents Worth? Explain that you are going to read a story, and during the story you will pause five times for them to reflect and think about how that part just read affected them personally. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss is perfect for this activity. This book has multiple levels of interpretation which help students analyze and react to the themes in the book. At each stopping point, students can decide if the story is causing them to think (head), touching their emotions (heart), or making them want to laugh (funny bone). Students can then give their two cents worth by placing zero, one, or two pennies in the boxes across from the number of each stopping point. They may split up the pennies into different columns if more than one body part is affected. They do not have to use all their pennies, or none if the story is not having an impact on them individually at that point. Stop at five predetermined points while reading the book or story aloud so that students can give their two cents' worth each time. Use the after reading questions as a guide for students to write a literature response. Step by step instructions for the teacher for whole class and group instruction. Includes Reading Response Sheet, Sheet of pennies, After-reading questions, and teacher directions, along with activating strategy, summarizing, and extension. - HappyEdugator

Christmas Word Scramble for your students to enjoy. Use at your next Christmas party. Directions: A bad winter weather system hit the North Pole yesterday and knocked out the power. When the power was brought back on, Santa found out that all his computers had scrambled his filenames! Help Santa fix his computer files by unscrambling the words below. He needs all the help he can get this time of year! This holiday scrambler activity is fun and engaging word play. No prep. Print and go. Key included, of course. - HappyEdugator

Independent and subordinate clauses worksheet supports the story After Twenty Years by O. Henry. Students have to determine the independent and subordinate clauses in four sentences, and then they have to add their own subordinate clauses to a given main clause to create complex sentences. - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.1a Explain the function of phrases and clauses in general and their function in specific sentences. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.1b Choose among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal differing relationships among ideas. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.1c Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling modifiers.

Mother's Day History Fill-In. A fun fill-in-the-blank story about the history of Mother's Day. Students have to use the words in the word bank to complete the story, using context clues to put the vocabulary words in the correct places. Key included. - HappyEdugator

Diary of Anne Frank Act II Scenes 1-5 Comprehension Questions. This worksheet is for the play version of the Diary of Anne Frank found in the Prentice Hall Literature book. The play is a dramatization by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. - HappyEdugator

Rainbow Fish Craftivity or Art Activity. Read Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, then make a fish bowl using inexpensive items such as paper plates, blue finger paint, glue and goldfish crackers. Step by step directions on how to have your little ones make a great looking "fish bowl," with Rainbow Fish as the star! This activity can be adapted to work with other books as well, such as Fish is Fish, Memoirs of a Goldfish, Swimmy, McElligot's Pool, One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish, and more. You could also make a Finding Nemo fishbowl! Enjoy!

Geometry - Task Cards. Supports common core state standards. 30 task cards on finding perimeter, area, volume, measuring angles, congruence, lines and rays, and other geometric concepts, including word problems. Includes answer recording sheet,and answer key. - HappyEdugator

Clauses - Identifying Clauses Worksheet or Quiz. After reading passage, students will write the letter of the term that correctly identifies the underlined group of words in each sentence. Students will have to be able to differentiate between adjective clauses and adverb clauses, independent clauses, simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences. Ten multiple choice questions. This can be used as a practice sheet or as a quiz. Key included. - HappyEdugator

Four Principal Parts of Verbs PowerPoint. Introduces the four principal parts of verbs, including the present tense, past tense, present participle and past particle form. Includes slides from which students can take notes, and then there are ten slides for practice in using correct sentences. Aligned with common core for 5th grade, where students are require to understand, form and use the perfect (e.g., I had walked; I have walked; I will have walked) verb tenses. - HappyEdugator (Updated January 2015)

TEST PREP Parts of Speech and Sentence Construction Interactive PowerPoint. Interactive practice for standardized tests. Parts of speech in context and subject and predicates practice questions. Help students practice sentence construction for testing of standards. Animated graphics and immediate feedback after each slide. This is a good practice for test preparation for state tests, but it can also be used as an assessment of your students skills. You can project this on a whiteboard and do it as a whole class activity, or you can have students do it individually if they have a computer or chromebook. Self-checking. 20 questions. 43 slides. - Happyedugator

Travel Brochure Rap Project. This group project will have your students learning and creating! They will need to use map skills, research skills, writing skills, spelling and grammar. This activity has students working in small groups of three or four, pretending to be travel agents to help The Rhymers, an unusual family who only understand rhymes and rap everything they say. Works well with a poetry unit as well. Print out this handout with the assignment, rubric, and self assessment, and watch them create! Teachers and students can change the countries to whatever fits...we used Spain, Denmark, and France. - HappyEdugator

Brain Teaser Bingo Sheet. This fun activity will get them thinking! 16 Language-based brain puzzles are on a bingo grid. Students can choose to solve any four in a row, or be challenged to do them all! Teacher can also assign different combinations, and first student to solve them all can win the BINGO. Each square has a different type of activity, and students must use critical thinking, logical reasoning, and word knowledge to solve- such as synonyms, homonyms, palindromes, and compound words. Challenging. Great for gifted students. This can be used as a time filler around testing also. The second page is a key with answers to all the puzzles. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Map Reading Worksheet. This worksheet students can use as a guide for finding important information on a map. Students should each be provided a map and then use this worksheet to learn about the title, grid, scale, legend or key, and direction of a map. - HappyEdugator