Drama Extension Activities PowerPoint. Presentation includes several extension menus for differentiating instruction for any drama unit. These were developed originally to be used with the plays "A Christmas Carol" and "The Diary of Anne Frank," but can be used with any play or dramatization. There are extension menus or enrichment activities for author, time period, play comprehension, drama terms and an independent study guide and a menu of reading project ideas for multiple intelligences-auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Also included is an oral presentation rubric and a peer evaluation form. Useful for gifted students who need extra independent work. Enjoy. - HappyEdugator

Writing: How to Engage the Reader PowerPoint. Focus on writing using three strategies to hook the reader, with examples. These three different writing strategies to engage the reader and create a great beginning for a narrative account can be used to help students overcome writer's block, especially when preparing for state writing tests. For use in a standards-based writing program which supports common core. Includes a slide with several other strategies students can try as well. Updated August 2014 - 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

Back to School Tips for Success - Stop Daydreaming and Get on Task! Back to school and back in focus, this PowerPoint gives students tips to follow to start off the school year right. Nine ways to have a successful year. Kids will relate to the animated daydreamers at the beginning. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Homophones - Homophones Interactive PowerPoint. Interactive. 25 practice sentences for students to find the correct homophone and then check. A fun way to practice. Project on overhead, use on tablets, chromebooks, or on a computer. Animated graphics. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.1g Correctly use frequently confused words (e.g., to, too, two; there, their).

United States Scavenger Hunt Handout. A fun fill-in-the-blank geography hunt of the United States. Students will need to use a US map (several included) and will have to use their map skills to answer the questions. There are 30 blanks worth 3 points each, and one bonus question. Key included. Also includes a set of internet task cards. Educational and fun! A good Social Studies class activity, as well as a great activity for summer. Have your kids do this activity at summer camp or on a trip! - HappyEdugator

Poetry: Ways to Read Poetry PowerPoint. Presentation guides students in how to approach reading poetry with a plan so they can reach their goal of understanding what a poem means. Teaches close reading of poetry. Before, during and after reading strategies including paraphrasing, journaling, and "two per line" will help students become more active and responsive readers. Supports common core standards. 17 slide PowerPoint. - HappyEdugator

Leap Year. Facts and fun. Animated PowerPoint on Leap Year. Answers questions many kids have about leap year. Slides include: What is Leap Year? When does Leap Year Happen? When do we add the extra day? Why do we have Leap Year? When was the first Leap Year? What calendar do we use today? How is Leap Year determined? 2016 is Leap Year - what are the next 4 leap years? 2016 is Leap Year - what year was the last leap year? The last slide is a partner activity the kids can do that is related to leap year and February 29.

Fables. Introduce fables with fun original fable on PowerPoint! Use this to introduce a unit on fables, or to supplement a unit on fables. The fable is about an alligator who talks too much, and never listens. Animated clips bring the story to life. After the fable, the last slide has the characteristics of fables, and students can try to identify characteristics they saw. They are then challenged to write their own fable. - HappyEdugator

Literature Terms and Strategies Authors Use to Engage the Reader PowerPoint. Elements of fiction. Literary terms and elements of fictional 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

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

TEST PREP Test Practice - Language Arts and Reading. Test Preparation practice for state testing. Several nonfiction reading selections, and questions based on standards. Helps students practice answering questions similar to ones that they could have on the state assessment. Can be used for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades as practice. Useful for preparing for any state test. Use a bubble sheet or scan-tron to make it more like the real thing. Supports common core. 33 multiple choice questions. Key included.

Thanksgiving Homophones PowerPoint. Fun November Activity - a homophones search! It's an interactive Thanksgiving story to read. Students have to look for two incorrect homophones on each slide. There are twenty homophones (or homonyms)to find in all, two on each slide, and then students check themselves at the end. Key included on last slide. Fun and engaging, this original Thanksgiving story is about a little boy who travels across the country to visit his grandparents for a typical Thanksgiving holiday. Develops reading vocabulary and comprehension, spelling skills, and correct usage. Supports common core standards. - HappyEdugator Keywords: Thanksgiving, Homophones, Thanksgiving PowerPoint, Thanksgiving interactive, Thanksgiving activities, Thanksgiving word study, Thanksgiving vocabulary development, Thanksgiving reading, making inferences, frequently confused words, Thanksgiving common core

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

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.

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.

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

Nursery Rhymes - Poetry You Should Know PowerPoint. 25 nursery rhymes from Mother Goose to teach students of all ages who may not be familiar with them. Promotes cultural literacy. This can be a great introduction to a poetry unit, and students can research some of the history and meanings of the old rhymes. Some of the poems had religious and other historical meanings. The slides have illustrations, and some of the rhymes have tunes associated with the slides. I have read aloud some of the rhymes. Younger students will enjoy the rhymes, and this projected on your whiteboard can supplement your nursery rhyme unit. Also use with older students to teach alliteration, repetition, and other sound devices and figurative language used in poetry. Updated July 2015. Includes the following rhymes: Baa Baa Black Sheep Banbury Cross Diddle Diddle Dumpling Georgy Porgy Hey Diddle Diddle Humpty Dumpty Jack and Jill Jack Sprat Little Boy Blue Little Bo Peep Little Polly Flinders Mary Mary Quite Contrary One Misty Moisty Morning Polly Put the Kettle On Pussy-Cat and the Queen Rain Rain Rock-a-bye Baby Simple Simon Sing a Song of Sixpence Solomon Grundy Three Blind Mice To Market To Market Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee Wee Willie Winkie

Persuasive Writing Recipe PowerPoint. We use recipes for many things, why not persuasive writing? This powerpoint gives students a “recipe” to follow when writing a persuasive essay, and gives them the basic framework for a persuasive writing piece, starting with an introductory paragraph that ends with a thesis statement, at least three well-supported paragraphs that have a topic sentence related to the thesis statement, and a conclusion that restates the thesis and calls the reader to agree and take action. Reminds students to be prepared for counter arguments, and to write with strong ideas, voice, fluency, organization, presentation, and conventions. Revised and updated 2013 with added information on the writing process, animations and graphics. - HappyEdugator Supports Common Core ELA Writing Standards CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.1a Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.1b Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.1c Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.1d Establish and maintain a formal style. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.1e Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented.