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

Middle School Language Arts Essential Study Guide. Practice questions on author's purpose, principal parts of verbs, subject-verb agreement, context clues, idioms and prepositions. This four page study guide or practice sheet reviews several areas of concern many middle school students have trouble with in Language Arts. Key included. Good for test preparation! - HappyEdugator

Common Root Words Handout. Common Greek and Latin roots, root words or stems, prefixes, suffixes, and math and science affixes and roots on a comprehensive printable handout. Includes reasons why learning roots and affixes are important. Good to review before standardized testing. 8 pages. Supports common core. - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.4b Use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., telegraph, photograph, autograph). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.4b Use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., photograph, photosynthesis) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.4b Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., audience, auditory, audible). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.4b Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., belligerent, bellicose, rebel). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.4b Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., precede, recede, secede).

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

Independent Clauses and Subordinate Clauses. Worksheet or Quiz. Sentence structure practice, review, or assessment. Students will identify whether the underlined clauses are either independent clauses or dependent clauses (subordinate). Ten sentences with key. Supports common core. . - HappyEdugator CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.1.a Explain the function of phrases and clauses in general and their function in specific sentences.

Coordinate Adjectives Handout and Practice Worksheet. Explains using commas and how to tell the difference between coordinate adjectives and cumulative adjectives. Coordinating adjectives are adjectives that must have a comma because they can have the word "and" put between them or their order can be reversed. Cumulative adjectives must stay in the order in which they are presented or they do not make sense, so therefore they do not need a comma. Handout will give students a reference to use, and worksheet has 18 practice sentences where students must determine if the adjectives are coordinate or cumulative, and place commas accordingly. Supports the common core standards. L.7.2a . No prep. Print and go.

End of the Year Superlative Questions: Most Likely To Succeed as ... Printable ballot with 32 great "Most Likely to" questions for end of the year activities - perhaps a classroom fun filler, an assembly, or to use when creating a yearbook. - 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.

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

Back to School Words of Wisdom Handout. Use at Open House! Beginning of the year inspirational quotes. Give this handout of important life lessons to your students on the first day of school, to parents and students at back to school parent night or open house, or use it as a send off for the end of the year. Twenty-one important thoughts and inspirational quotes about how to live life to the fullest. A good character building tool to foster respect and responsibility. Parents will enjoy it on parent night as well. You can also use it during parent conferences to start off with a positive note. You can also have students select a quote to write about as a beginning of the year writing activity. - HappyEdugator

MLA Format Handout. This printable handout is a guide for students when making citations in essays using Modern Language Association (MLA) format. Includes general guidelines for margins, font and spacing, how the heading, title and page numbers should be formatted, and how to make citations for both long and short quotations, which are defined. An example included. - HappyEdugator

EST PREP Common Core Vocabulary for Middle Grades PowerPoint. Test prep for middle grades Language Arts. Academic vocabulary. Vocabulary words that may be tested on the new common core assessments for middle school Language Arts. Each slide has a word, a definition, and an illustration or animated graphic to help students remember. Can also be printed out on index cards and used for a word wall or as flash cards. Now updated with even more words! Helpful for test preparation. Includes Sprenger's words - essential and critical vocabulary for common core- HappyEdugator

Complete Subject and Simple Subject Worksheet. Understanding basic sentences. The first step in finding subjects and predicates is to be able to find the simple subject and complete subject. This worksheet explains simple and complete subjects in simple, easy to understand terms and then give students fifteen sentences for practice. Students like using highlighters instead of circling the simple subject. Answer key included. - HappyEdugator

ELA test prep interactive PowerPoint on parts of speech, subjects and predicates, sentence structure, types of sentences, verb tenses and superlative adjectives that could be on standardized tests. Language Arts grammar and mechanics practice questions with answers to help your students master some of the kinds of questions they might face on standardized tests. Use as an assessment or a practice before state testing of standards. 30 questions. Animated graphics and instant feedback. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator

Somebody Wanted But So Then. Fairy Tale Story Map - Students can use this story frame for writing a fairy tale and illustrating it. Graphic organizer for the story using Somebody Wanted But So Then pattern. Includes a box on the second page for student illustration. This can also be used as a summarizing strategy for students to summarize a story they've been reading. - HappyEdugator

A Christmas Carol Subject and Predicate Worksheet. Based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, this worksheet explains simple and complete predicates and subjects, and then students have to identify them in ten sentences that give facts about the story. No prep. Print and go. Key included.

Flowers for Algernon Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle. 30 Vocabulary words are hidden in the puzzle. Word list and key included. -HappyEdugator

Finding the Main Idea When Reading Non-Fiction PowerPoint. Interactive questions with immediate feedback and animated graphics. Explains main idea and how to find it when reading informational text. Common core requires more nonfiction reading! Students need to have a good understanding of what they read, and this is a key skill they need for success. Good for test prep! - HappyEdugator

4 Types of Sentences Worksheet. The four types of sentences - definition of and example of each given. Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative and Exclamatory Sentences with definitions and examples, and then students practice converting one type to another, and learn a little about a couple of South American landmarks as well. Good for quick review for test prep, too. - HappyEdugator

Greek and Latin Roots. 30 WEEKS of Word Stems from Latin and Greek Roots. Basic Lists of Greek and Latin roots. prefixes, suffixes, and affixes, tests, and answer keys included. Perfect for Back to School. Teacher directions, suggestions for homework activities, and differentiation included. This program will prepare your students for standardized tests. Starting at the beginning of the year, go through all 30 weeks, and then spend some time reviewing these as test prep before state testing. Knowing these Latin and Greek roots (which are labeled as to origin) will help your students understand the building blocks of the English language. In this file you will find thirty sets of word stems from Greek and Latin Roots. Each page has ten stems, with their meanings and example words. After the first set, most pages will have two review stems from a previous page. The origin of each stem is marked L for Latin or G for Greek. Supports common core standards. Suggested for middle grades, but may be adapted for grades 4 - 5 by following the suggestions for differentiation. Enjoy! - HappyEdugator Standards L.4.4b, L.5.4b, L.6.4b, L.7.4b, L.8.4b