Middle School Tools for Common Core Resources (by date, latest first)

Want to decorate your classroom with a unique and cute theme?

This kit includes: 2 different sets of numbers, 2 banners, unique letters, classroom role cards and more... + a PPT for you to personalize the material.

A pre-made design has been made as well!

This Google Sheets digital resource is a detailed tool to help you keep track of 8th grade ELA Common Core State Standards you cover throughout the school year!

All ELA standards are included!

This resource gives you a digital option with easy-to-use checkboxes and is 100% editable! It is organized by months, weeks, and there is a spot to add your units! It is based off of a mid-August to mid-May school year, however, you may edit this resource to fit your needs.

Just for fun, it has a green color theme!

This sheet is also included in this combined Google Sheets file: 6th, 7th, AND 8th Grade ELA Common Core State Standards DIGITAL Checklist BUNDLE

*NEW* 5th Grade is now also available here!

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Like this resource? Please leave a helpful review/rating and EARN SOME TeachShare CREDITS towards your next TPT purchase!

Checkout my store here - all teacher friends are welcome!

Other resources you may like:

RACE Writing Strategy | Citing Text Evidence | ELA TEST PREP - BUNDLEBoho Rainbow Café Classroom Decor Theme Set | GROWING BUNDLE

DIGITAL Unit Guide Template | Scope & Sequence | EDITABLE
Flipped Classroom Parent / Student BUNDLE
Starbooks Virtual Book Tasting with Verse Novels

This Google Sheets digital resource is a detailed tool to help you keep track of 7th grade ELA Common Core State Standards you cover throughout the school year!

All ELA standards are included!

This resource gives you a digital option with easy-to-use checkboxes and is 100% editable! It is organized by months, weeks, and there is a spot to add your units! It is based off of a mid-August to mid-May school year, however, you may edit this resource to fit your needs.

Just for fun, it has a purple color theme!

This sheet is also included in this combined Google Sheets file: 6th, 7th, AND 8th Grade ELA Common Core State Standards DIGITAL Checklist BUNDLE

*NEW* 5th Grade is now also available here!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like this resource? Please leave a helpful review/rating and EARN SOME TeachShare CREDITS towards your next TPT purchase!

Checkout my store here - all teacher friends are welcome!

Other resources you may like:

RACE Writing Strategy | Citing Text Evidence | ELA TEST PREP - BUNDLEBoho Rainbow Café Classroom Decor Theme Set | GROWING BUNDLE

DIGITAL Unit Guide Template | Scope & Sequence | EDITABLE
Flipped Classroom Parent / Student BUNDLE
Starbooks Virtual Book Tasting with Verse Novels

This Google Sheets resource is a detailed tool to help you keep track of 6th, 7th, AND 8th grade ELA Common Core State Standards you cover throughout the school year!

All middle school ELA standards are included!

This BUNDLED resource gives you a digital option with easy-to-use checkboxes and is 100% editable! It is organized by months, weeks, and there is a spot to add your units! It is based off of a mid-August to mid-May school year, however, you may edit this resource to fit your needs.

Just for fun, it is color-coded! 6th grade is turquoise, 7th grade is purple, and 8th grade is green!

If you only need ONE grade level, check out my other products below:

6th Grade ELA Common Core State Standards DIGITAL Checklist

7th Grade ELA Common Core State Standards DIGITAL Checklist

8th Grade ELA Common Core State Standards DIGITAL Checklist

*NEW* 5th Grade is now also available here!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Like this resource? Please leave a helpful review/rating and EARN SOME TeachShare CREDITS towards your next TPT purchase!

Checkout my store here - all teacher friends are welcome!

Other resources you may like:

RACE Writing Strategy | Citing Text Evidence | ELA TEST PREP - BUNDLE

Boho Rainbow Café Classroom Decor Theme Set | GROWING BUNDLE

DIGITAL Unit Guide Template | Scope & Sequence | EDITABLE
Flipped Classroom Parent / Student BUNDLE
Starbooks Virtual Book Tasting with Verse Novels

Fall Halloween Bundle

Over 150+ activities included in 9 packets for Fall and Halloween fun!

Descriptions:

Activity Packet 1: Halloween Coloring Sheets

40 pages

Halloween fun with 40 coloring sheets (nothing scary!) of:

pumpkins
scarecrows
friendly ghosts
haunted trees
haunted house
Dracula
Frankenstein
and more...

Non-controversial and with lesson plan ideas to encourage coordination, multi-tasking skills, writing, listening, reading, storytelling, puppet theater, and more. Great for introducing Halloween as a friendly holiday.

Activity Packet 2: Eerie Writing Prompts

21 pages

Eerie story starters to get your students in the mood for writing scary stories! Great visuals with one liner story starters. Colorful and imaginative prompts for creative writing practice and peer workshopping.

Includes:
Perhaps we could become friends...
Two eyes peered back at me...
I've had a very interesting life!
Come closer...
Let me tell you how I ended up here...
C'mon out...there's nothing to be afraid of!
Meet my new friend
The eerie glow of the pumpkin...
I know what you did!
Have a seat and let me tell you my story!
The howl of the wolf scared me.
Something went bump in the night
I started up the winding road...
The blaze lit up the night's sky...
Let me show you my castle!
"Help!" screamed the principal.
We found the shipwrecked boat...

Great Halloween writing prompts for practicing creative writing, storytelling, and peer workshopping skills!

Activity Packet 3: Get Fit Action Story: Frank N. Stein’s Haunted Horse

15 pages

Get students exercising and moving as they follow along with Frank N. Stein's move to a new neighborhood, where he finds new friends to help make his house a home. Action words include:

looked around
moped
juggled
skipped rope
frown
blow
shivered and shook
dropped to the ground
ran
slammed
quiver
danced
stood still
knock
jump
shook hands
waved
stepped to the right
boogied to the Monster Mash
shouted,
“Happy Halloween!”

Practice/assess coordination, comprehension, fitness, following directions, listening, and sight words with Get Fit Action Stories. Use for daily warm-ups, rainy day indoor activities, PE, reading, and learning styles. Fun and enjoyable for all!

Activity Packet 4: Write a Scary Story with Word Banks and Coloring Images

16 pages

16 Halloween coloring images with holiday word banks that include:

Cats
Bats
Dracula
Frankenstein
Ghosts
Pirate
Pumpkins
Trick or Treat
Witches
Zombies
and more...

Includes: Suggestions For Use sheet and template to create your own vocabulary word bank. Upper levels can use for poetry and contest writing. Fun way to assess writing skills in an ELA classroom. Grab a blanket and flashlight, turn on the lighted pumpkin, and have a classroom read-around of Halloween stories.

Activity Packet 5: Wacky Wayne’s Halloween I-Spy

11 pages

10 I-Spy Halloween pictures and items to help students with basic letters, hand-eye coordination, and matching skills. Can be colored and displayed. Includes:

Ghost
Frankenstein (2)
Bat
Haunted House
Mummy
Dracula
Scary Tree
and more...

Fun matching activities for early elementary students.

Activity Packet 6: Wacky Wayne’s Fall I-Spy

11 pages

10 I-Spy handouts with fall themes. Find and match basic letters and shapes. Includes:

Scarecrows
Farm
Farmer
Pumpkins
Squirrels
Leaves
Shapes
Basic Letters
and many more...

Handouts can be colored and displayed.

Activity Packet 7: Halloween Color, Count and Match Activities

22 pages

22 Halloween themed handouts for early learners to practice math skills, such as:

coloring/motor skills
counting
holiday
matching
numbers 1-10
sight words
themes
(No controversial or scary images!)

Find the correct Halloween symbol sheet to match the handout then cut, color, and paste. Practice basic numbers and sight words recognition, as well as matching symbols. Can be used for assessment. Includes extra activities and ideas for use of handouts.

Activity Packet 8: Fabulous Fall Activities

26 pages

25 fall themed creative writing handouts, poetry sheets, coloring activities, and more for elementary grades:

Includes:
Fall Scavenger Hunt
Classmate Scarecrow (Facebook page with Scarecrow)
"F is for"
My Pumpkin Poem (writing & craft activity)
Fall Acrostic Poem
What I love about fall
Create a Fall Feast party invitation
Write a Fall Story (with fall vocabulary word bank)
Write a tongue twister (with fall vocabulary word bank)
Draw a fall scene in the camera's lens
How many words can you make from "corn and oats"
Quack! Quack! If I were a duck...
Design a sign to sell your veggies/photos
My Fall Message for You
My Favorite thing to do in Fall
Fall interview
Fall newspaper
Fabulous Fall Recipe
Fall word search
& more...

Lots of creative and engaging handouts and activities for fall fun!

Activity Packet 9: Falling Leaf Spelling Activities

18 pages

15 Fall themed scenes that provide sight word/consonant and vowel practice. Falling leaves contain letters which can be written on the lines to make as many words as possible using consonants and vowels. Color the scenes, put together letters to make words, compare answers, small team game included.

Includes:

Fall scenes: trees, scarecrows, farm, farmer, pumpkins, squirrels, and more...
Basic alphabet letters: vowels and consonants
Directions with Optional Play and Use

Great for consonants, vowels, spelling, vocabulary, and writing practice, as well as assessments.

Fall Halloween Bundle includes over 150+ fun activities!

Do your students need help categorizing and defining their research sources? Are you asking them to meet a minimum number of research sources for their essays? If so, then these worksheets are just what you need! Included are: 2 formatted sets of worksheets: Table format & Listing format for Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Research Sources Easy to understand definitions Examples of all sources Blank space for recording students' own research sources Number of Sources Used line for each source Students can easily understand Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary research sources, their examples, and can easily define and chart their research sources. Perfect for developing upper level critical thinking skills and research skills! Great for homeschooling, AP, dual credit, college composition, and elementary GT students. Excellent for non-fiction based CCSS and state standardized research writing.

Celebrate Earth Day with 40 pages of Earth Day related images for writing fact-based poems and prose.

Includes:

5 title pages

Directions with optional activities

30 Earth Day graphics (earth, recycle, alternative energy, pollution, and more!)

5 The End pages

Great for Civics, Government, Social Studies, and meets ELA standards.

Use as:

Individual poems/prose writings

On-demand writing

Practice concepts/skills from mini-lessons

Practice peer workshopping strategies

Publishing opportunities

Celebration of Earth Day

See Educator Helper's other Earth Day products!

Free weekly handout at www.bethhammett.blogspot.com

Help student writers understand and read their essays from readers' perspectives with this nine page presentation. The analogy of learning to drive is used to help writers understand that reading punctuation is like obeying road signs. Includes: Many roles of a writer Visually stimulating graphics Defining Writer as Reader Practicing Writer as Reader slides (indiividual/group activity) Peer Workshopping Following the steps of reading, listening, and correcting Excellent for introducing writers' roles, peer workshopping, and understanding punctuation.

22 story maps for illustrating storytelling to writing activities. These hobby and life maps are excellent as first week icebreakers, using oral narratives to start the writing process, and learning more about students. Use as individual/small/whole group activities. Meets CCSS. Includes: Directions Example 2 Teacher Maps Singer Traveler (Local, State, US, World) Artist Baseball Softball Basketball Soccer Football Reader Writer Technology Music Dancers (Male & Female) Science My Life Story 3 Blank Story Map Templates Students will have fun while being engaged as they learn about their classmates, draw symbols for life events, write captions, and use storytelling as part of their writing process.

Have you ever wondered how fake news makes such big headlines? Circular reporting, or false confirmation, is the term used to show how information spreads and becomes truth. This active learning, critical thinking, visual lesson plan and presentation introduces students to how we believe, and how false news spreads, as well as introduces how to define research sources. Students learn about primary, secondary, and tertiary sources for research and writing. Contains upper level current events content; use with appropriate ages and grades. Activities and Lesson Plan Includes: Teacher Lesson Plans with Step-by-Step Discussion Guide Evaluating Valid Information (Dr. Jeremy Dean) Class Poll: Gullible or Skeptical? False Advertisement by April Uno about Phillip Morris (Marijuana) Descartes and Spinoza 17th Century Debate on How We Believe Daniel Gilbert's 1993 Robbery Study Define: Circular Reporting and False Confirmation How False Information is Circulated 1994 Microsoft Hoax Benghazi and False Reporting Examples of False Information Reported as Truth How to Avoid Circular Reporting Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources (with labeling activity) Re-evaluating Beliefs and Class Poll Discussion Questions on Citing Sources and Social Media Optional Activities: Classic Telephone Game, Class Debate and Jury Trial, Evaluating Websites Excellent for teaching fact-based information, citing sources, propaganda in the news, journalism reporting, beliefs/ethics/morals, AP courses, Dual Credit, Philosophy. Lots of engaging, critical thinking activities for debates and discussions. Meets CCSS ELA.

Where did Rudolph get his red nose? How did it come about? When did it happen? Why is it red? Become a reporter and uncover the facts! Students get the opportunity to create facts and/or interview others about Rudolph's red nose. Then, students compile a report using proper dialogue. The 7 page lesson can be used with early learners as well as middle school learners. Packet includes: Directions with optional activities Media/Video Links Working with Dialogue and Facts sheet Rudolph's Red Nose: The Facts (handout for higher level learners) Lined, themed paper for writing Reindeer handout for lower level writers Introduces use of dialogue and quotations for future fact-based assessment writing. Meets Common Core Standards.

Revised to include social media rules along with academic, creative, journalism. Help students categorize essays to determine what kind of guidelines to use. The 10 slide handout/presentation includes: Breakdown of 4 kinds of writing: academic, creative, journalism, and Texting When and How to use specific guidelines Easy Categorizing of essays Comparison of rules Printable Handout of Categories and Rules Activities Peer Workshopping Component Easy to understand and follow, great for standardized assessment strategies, and perfect for upper level/college bound students.

A 15 page resource for student publishing of essays and written works includes: Guideline checklist Author Tips Cover Sheet/Query Letter Publishing Tips Where to Send Work: Online, local, regional, national... Books for Publishing Help Blogging Self-Publishing Publishing Checklist to Guide Students through the Process Publishing Summary List (Keep up with correspondence) Can be used individually, small/whole group, with flipped classrooms, homework, assessment of writing processes, for peer workshopping, grammar reinforcements, and as real life writing assignment. Easy to follow and implement in ELA/Journalism classrooms.

Do your students need help defining,understanding, and identifying academic, scholarly research sources? This 16 page easy-to-follow lesson includes:

Discussion/Reflection on where students search for sources

What is scholarly research? (An Overview)

Table of Other Kinds of Sources: Popular, Trade, News & Opinion

Activity for Kinds of Resources

Types of Research Resources: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary

Activity for Types of Research Resources

Where to Locate Scholarly Research

How to Know if Your Research can be Used

Using Wikipedia--Yes or No?

Evaluating Wikipedia Bibliographies

Research Sources Checklist

Great for learning how to categorize and define scholarly research sources! Use with upper level, AP, dual credit, homeschool, college level students, and flipped classrooms.

A simple introduction to parallelism and how to use it in writing. Includes: Explanation Color-coded slides Why writers use parallelism Three activities: Define "parallel" and how it is used in writing, Finding Parallelism, Using Parallelism Peer workshopping component Excellent for mini-lessons, assessment writing, learning basic skills, enhancing writing, and progression of skills. Can be used individually or small/whole group.

Teach plagiarism in fun, interactive ways! Includes:

Group or individual activities with critical thinking component

YouTube videos

Discussion examples

Plagiarism game

Plenty of Extra resources

Defines plagiarism

Famous people and plagiarism

Citations

Examples of famous people who plagiarized

Myths of Plagiarism

Make a KWL chart of plagiarism

Time for Students' examples

and more...

Uses social interaction to understand proper citations. Great research tool! Easy-to-use, educational, and enjoyable. Guided instruction only is needed.

Reinforce word origins by having students come up with their own made-up words! Use compound words, foreign words, prefixes/suffixes, shortened words, sound words, rhyming words, etc...for this fun, visual activity. Includes: Directions Definition Example from Classic Poem Student Examples Application Activity Publishing Activities Meets CCSS, improves vocabulary, uses decoding skills, and visualization. Use for individual or group activity.

Simple, to the point 5 slide presentation that walks students through using For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So (FANBOYS) in their writings. Includes: Rules Tips Practice Exercises Peer Workshopping Component Meets Common Core Standards for grammar usage.

Make learning prepositions and prepositional phrases fun and easy with this visual writing presentation. 13 pages/slides of active learning strategies for understanding and using prepositions and prepositional phrases along with commas. Includes: Definitions Poem Preposition List Preposition Chair Activity Preposition Walk around the School Campus Easy to use tips Prepositional Phrases Commas and Prepositions Lots of color coded, visual writing examples Practice activities for individual/small/whole group Peer Workshopping Easy for students to follow and use. Great for fllipped classrooms and homeschools. Activities can be used individually or in small or whole group settings. A stimulating visual learning approach to help students understand prepositions and phrases.

Step-by-Step How-To for complete film writing analysis. This 36 page guide has two parts: Getting Started and Writing Your Essay. This easy-to-follow guide includes: What is film analysis? Literary Analysis and Film Concepts Getting Started How to Watch and Take Notes Audience Theme Emotions Writing Your Essay Introduction Plot Summary Body Paragraphs Setting Mood Characters Film Techniques Sound Lighting Symbolism Foreshadowing, Directors and Writers Using Film Quotes Conclusion Peer Workshopping Activity slides for: planning, writing theme and subject, introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion Excellent for flipped classrooms, homeschooling, online learners, literacy centers, individual and group learning.