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

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

Misplaced Modifiers Worksheet. This worksheet explains what a modifier is, and then it gives examples and practice identifying them. In addition, it explains how misplaced modifiers can change the meaning of a sentence. Students then have to pick the correct sentences that do not have misplaced modifiers. Supports common core standards. This is a skill that is important to clear writing and it is often tested on standardized tests. Key included. - HappyEdugator

Introduction to Research PowerPoint. Introduce a research project. Starts with an activating strategy where students have to guess and check. The next slides relate to where students can find information about their topic. Interactive activities such as a 2 Minute Brainstorm. General information on how to choose a topic and not plagiarize by citing sources. This is a PowerPoint used to introduce writing a research paper only. Details of writing one are not included. Summarizing strategy is a 3-2-1. Three things to know about research, 2 purposes of research, 1 possible topic to research. Last slide accelerates the idea of plagiarism and crediting your sources. 16 slides. - 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

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

Beginning of the Year Student Survey and Poster. Beginning of the Year or First Day of School print and go handout. Includes an 8 question student survey about classroom expectations from a student perspective, and a poster you can hang about new beginnings. This that will help you get to know your students and help them focus on what is important. Share results of the survey with your students and discuss how they fit in to classroom rules and procedures. - HappyEdugator

Exit Slip Ticket Out - Pac Man Summarizing Activity Ticket Out. Ticket out the door? Use this summarizing activity to have students take notes on what was important to have learned in your lesson. Students summarize by filling in the thought bubbles and take additional notes at the bottom. Can be given out at the beginning of the week and students fill in the bubbles daily Monday through Thursday and review for assessment on Friday. Also great for summarizing independent reading or chapters of novels. - HappyEdugator

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins Vocabulary List and Activities. Complete Vocabulary List and Activity sheets for the Hunger Games book Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. The first page is a word list with definitions of 47 important words to know from the novel. There are four pages of vocabulary activities: two different fill-ins, a crossword puzzle, and a synonym match. Key included. - HappyEdugator

Middle Grades Writing Test Preparation PowerPoint. A detailed TEST PREP PowerPoint presentation designed to help students prepare for what is required on the Middle Grades Writing Assessment in Georgia, which can be applied to any standardized writing test anywhere. This presentation can be used to teach students to produce quality expository and persuasive essays and the expectations of any writing assessment. 43 slides, the last seven slides are for the teacher, including scoring, activities to promote good writing, and best practices. -HappyEdugator

Literature Terms - Strategies Authors Use to Engage the Reader PowerPoint. Literary terms and elements of fiction literature that can be used as an introduction or review of literary devices and commonly used literature terms on state tests. Slides are in alphabetical order with colorful pictures to keep your students engaged. Terms included: allegory, alliteration, allusion, analogy, characterization, conflict, diction, foreshadowing, figurative language, hyperbole, imagery, irony, metaphor, metonymy, motif, mood, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, paradox, pastiche, personification, point of view, satire, setting, simile, stream of consciousness, symbolism, theme, tone, vernacular. 34 slides. - HappyEdugator

Short u Sound - Sounding Out Words PowerPoint. CVC words. Teach reading with phonics and decoding using word families! Short u Word Family. Slides introduce the sound of short u and have students practice blending short u 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 and short e and o. 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. Supports common core standards. Good supplement for CVC word work! - HappyEdugator

TEST PREP: Reading - English Language Arts. Key terms and academic vocabulary. Standardized test terminology. Two lists of vocabulary and terminology often seen on standardized tests. One for Grade 1 - 3, and one for Grade 4 - 8. These words may be found on state tests or common core assessments. Make sure your students are familiar with the terminology before testing begins. - HappyEdugator

Suffixes for Parts of Speech PowerPoint Presentation. This PowerPoint has common suffixes that are used for nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and their meanings. Students who learn these suffixes will find determining parts of speech easier, and will also be able to use this knowledge to build vocabulary. A foldable graphic organizer (instructions included) will help students retain the information. After students take notes, they can quiz on the practice questions. Then they can learn four spelling rules for suffixes. - HappyEdugator

Myths, Legends, Fables, and Folktales - Oral Tradition - Four Forms of Traditional Tales Handout. This handout will help your students understand myths, legends, fables and folktales by clearly defining them in a colorful graphic organizer, and then giving examples of each. A useful introduction to a unit on folktales, fairytales, or oral tradition stories. You may wish to project on a screen and have students take notes. Includes a note-taking page and a short quiz with key. Revised July 2014 - HappyEdugator

Halloween PowerPoint! A fun Halloween Mad-Lib activity! Use this Halloween Mad Lib to practice parts of speech...project it on your whiteboard. Students can number one through twelve on their own paper and come up with names, nouns, and other parts of speech as per the directions, and then volunteers read the following slide with their substitutions to make silly Halloween stories. Lots of fun, and students get to use their knowledge of parts of speech as well! Happy Halloween!- HappyEdugator

Drama Playbill Project. A printable activity -This assignment gives instructions to students on how to write a playbill (an advertisement for a play) that includes the following: an illustrated cover with information about the performance and a picture illustrating the play's content,a summary of the play written to promote the play, an illustration of the setting, an explanation of the the theme, and a description of the main character. A rubric for evaluation is included. - HappyEdugator

Earth Day Cooperative Learning Activity - Committee to Reduce Environmental Pollution. Works well as a post reading activity for The Lorax by Dr. Seuss or The Wump World by Bill Peet. Students will meet in groups (or committees) to analyze several different scenarios and to determine which type of polluter is the most destructive to the environment. Students will compare their individual results with their group results, and then the groups will compare their results with other groups in the class. The final activity is to see if the class can come to a consensus. Extension activity - discuss possible solutions.

The Hobbit Author J.R.R. Tolkien Biography PowerPoint. Slides give the story of Tolkien's life from his birth in South Africa, through his childhood, schooling, love, war, writing and friendships, fame, and ultimately his death. Useful background information and photos of the author to use when teaching The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. - HappyEdugator