Dolch Sight Words Activities - Week 2. A week of Dolch sight word activities for the second set of ten words from the Dolch sight words list. Activities include: flash cards/ memory game, color the words, trace the words, match the words, cut and paste the words in alphabetical order, and write the words in letterboxes. Weeks 1 - 10 will cover the first 100 Dolch Sight Words. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Thanksgiving Word Wall Vocabulary Words. 30 Thanksgiving word wall words for the holiday and a blank template you can use to add your own Thanksgiving words. Promotes Thanksgiving writing! Decorated with pumpkins, apples, and fall leaves. Print out on cardstock and laminate for durability. Use them as flash cards or as discussion starters. Kids can use these words in their Thanksgiving writing, too. Some of the words included are: thanks pumpkin family Autumn cider pilgrims feast turkey Fall November cornucopia Mayflower Massachussetts and more! Happy Thanksgiving!

Literary Terms in Context 2 PowerPoint. This interactive PowerPoint has 30 questions about literary terms in context. May be used individually, with a whole group, or with teams. Students must read the quote and answer the question, then click to check. Includes terms for poetry and literature, including figurative language, rhyme scheme, story elements and point of view. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

The Yearling by Marjorie K. Rawlings Anticipation Guide. Use this anticipation guide before you read the classic book or watch the movie about old pioneer days in Florida. Have students check off which statements they think could be a theme. Then read the book, watch the movie, and have them adjust their thinking as they proceed. Finally, at the end of the story, discuss. Have opinions changed? Have students support their choices with actual scenes from the book or movie. (Hint: they can all be themes) Enjoy! These teacher directions are included for your convenience. - HappyEdugator

Reading Book Assignment Sheet for Reading in Class. Useful for when reading a novel in class, or if you are assigning different sets of books for literature circles. Keep track of books assigned to students, so you can monitor condition of books assigned. Columns for book number, date book assigned, book assigned to student name, date book returned, reason book missing, other comments,damage,etc. A classroom tool that can also be used for keeping track of textbooks in all subject areas.

State Capitals of the United States PowerPoint Game. A fun way to practice learning the state capitals of all 50 states in the U.S. Divide class into two teams, print out two game boards and game pieces for each team, and see which team can correctly identify all 50 state capitals first. Interactive fun! Project onto whiteboard or interactive Smartboard. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Panther Dream by Bob and Wendy Weir Comprehension Questions. Studying the rainforest? This picture book is about conserving the African rain forest. This printable handout has comprehension questions about the story. Legendary Grateful Dead guitarist, Bob Weir and his sister, Wendy, wrote and illustrated (respectively) the children's book, "Panther Dream" in 1991 to raise awareness among children of the need to protect the world's rain forests. These comprehension questions go along with the book and help students find the main idea. Includes link to a video version of the book, if you don't have a copy, and an answer key. - HappyEdugator

January Famous Author Birthdays PowerPoint. To engage your readers, show them the slides on these famous authors who had birthdays in January, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, A.A. Milne, Jack London and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, to name a few. Each slide tells a little about the classic author and their most famous works. This winter, when students return from Christmas break, engage them in reading and writing! Have them choose from three writing assignments about these authors and their works on the last slide. - HappyEdugator

100 Most Common Words in the English Language.Sight words. Hearts theme is fun for Valentine's Day. These sight words are essential to reading. Compiled by the Oxford English Corpus, these are great for English language learners, too. The 100 (+1 bonus word) most common words in the English language. Altogether they make up about 50% of all written language. Therefore, it is important that your students learn to recognize all the words in this list, and eventually learn how to read, write, and define them. Use on a projector, or print out on index cards and make flash cards with them! P.S. If you have never printed slides onto index cards, here is how: Go to file, print, click on properties, select postcard printing, paper size index card 4 x 6, then Okay. Then before you print, select print slides, check the box scale to fit paper. I always use print preview to make sure it is set up the way I want. Load index cards in your printer, and print them out and laminate for durability.

The Great Gatsby Board Game Creation Project. Students are required to create their own board game that reflects a deep understanding of the novel. Grading is based on overall effort, how well student displays an understanding of the themes and main ideas of the story, how well student has incorporated their own ideas into a game board based on a classic game, and the quality of their explanatory paragraphs. May be used as a final project for assessment instead of a final test. Includes a 100 points rubric. - HappyEdugator

Valentines Day Coin Counting Practice - Activity Sheet, and Cut and Paste Cards. Valentine activity for coin counting practice. Counting money is an important life skill. Have students cut out the coins, then place the correct coins next to the amount to help Cupid buy Valentine treats., and record their findings on the counting sheet. They can even "spend" their cut-out money afterwards to "buy" real treats, if you wish. Laminate for use again next year. - HappyEdugator

Freak the Mighty Tic Tac Toe Board. A fun project or menu board to go with the book Freak the Mighty.

Main Idea in Writing PowerPoint - How can a piece of writing be strong in ideas? Ideas are the big juicy burger that is the meat of the paper. Short presentation and to the point presentation or mini-lesson that explains how students can score better on a standardized writing test with a paper that is strong in ideas, with several strategies on how to make ideas clearer and stronger. - HappyEdugator

Synonyms - Synonym Scramble I Have Who Has GAME. Helps students build vocabulary by matching synonyms in a classic I Have...Who Has format. Included are directions for play and synonym word lists to pass out to the students for discussion and review, and blue and red synonyms to use to make the synonym cards for play. Just print out and glue onto index cards. Enjoy!

Futoshiki Puzzles - Critical Thinking. This file includes a blank futoshiki student answer sheet, ten futoshiki puzzles for printing to use in centers or individually, or for projection on a whiteboard. There are also 5 sets of 4 puzzles for a group sudoku race to solve. Teacher directions include how to make reuseable dry erase answer sheets so you can save ink, and suggestions for teaching Futoshiki strategies. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

TEST PREP Top Ten Writing Tips for State Writing Test Success PowerPoint. Give your students the top ten list like they may have seen on the David Letterman Show, but for writing tips! Count down to what is the most important tip for being successful on a standardized writing test. Prepare for the new constructed response assessments for common core standards. A fun way to prepare your students to write better on assessments, from conventions to creativity. - HappyEdugator

Mother's Day Proverbs - What Did Your Mother Tell You? Mother's Day PowerPoint. Wise Old Sayings or Proverbs from A - Z. Advice you probably heard from your mother, your mom, or your mum! Fun to share and advance and develop cultural literacy. Animated butterflies walk you through an alphabetical list of different proverbs and their meanings or origins, written like Mom wrote it on stationary! Share with your students, or at a Mother's Day event to remember and honor Mom and her wisdom. Slides can be printed out to make a booklet as well. Students can also be challenged to write their own proverbs using the first letter of their mother's name, or make acrostic poems with the proverbs using their mother's names (great center activity), which can be given to mom as a gift. Enjoy! Added sounds and animations.

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

Homophones in Pictures PowerPoint. Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings and spelling. They can be easily confused. Illustrated homophones will help students remember which ones are which! Slide show has homophones and pictures to help students remember. Slides can be printed out to make a great bulletin board, too. Supports common core standards. - HappyEdugator

Noun Clauses PowerPoint. What is a noun clause? What is the differentce between a phrase and a clause? This is a short 8 slide practice Powerpoint on noun clauses. Students will learn how noun clauses are dependent or subordinate clauses, and signal words to look for when identifying noun clauses. Explains how noun clauses can act as a subject in a sentence, or as a direct object. Practice sentences for students to work with. Key is on the last slide. Updated July 2015. - HappyEdugator