8th Grade Holidays/Seasonal Google Apps

PURPOSE: These 5 Google Slide lessons provide digital pre-reading resources, historical background info, vocabulary word study, practice, and assessment for 5 classic stories: THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL, A CHRISTMAS MEMORY, THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, KIDNAPPED SANTA, BURGLAR’S CHRISTMAS.

GOAL: to prepare each student to read rigorous literature by front-loading story elements critical to comprehension aligned to standards

AUDIENCE: whole group, small group, or independent work for regular ed, learning support, ESL or virtual classrooms

PDF FILE. Plus, each ZIP file comes with a PDF folder containing 8 printable worksheets to be used with the PPT lesson! These printables include Connotation and Grammar sort, Word Study, and Vocabulary Quiz with optional word bank and answer key.

EACH Google Slide Lesson:

1. **Author Bio:** To connect vocabulary with real-world context, we provide author biographies related to each short story. This adds depth to the lesson, allowing students to appreciate the words in the context of the author's life experience.

2. **Setting**: highly informative slides include maps, historical images and intriguing video links to prepare students to have a deeper understanding of the location and time period in which the story takes place. This is a crucial element when preparing students to read outside their own worldview.

3. **Vocab with Concise Definitions :** Our PowerPoint lesson provides clear and concise definitions for challenging vocabulary words, ensuring that students understand the meaning of each word in context as it appears in the text. (See Individual lesson for vocabulary words)

4.**Bold Photos:** Visual learners will thrive with our visually appealing slides, featuring bold and relevant images that help reinforce vocabulary concepts and make learning more engaging.

5.**Parts of Speech:** Understanding the parts of speech is crucial for effective language comprehension. Our lesson includes sections dedicated to identifying the part of speech for each vocabulary word.

6. **Grammar Review & Sort** Strengthen language skills with integrated grammar review sections, ensuring students can apply the vocabulary words correctly in their own writing and communication.

7. **Connotation Review & Sort** Dive deeper into vocabulary nuances by exploring the connotations of words, helping students grasp the subtle shades of meaning and usage.

8.**Context Clues Sentences:** Our lesson includes carefully curated sentences that employ context clues, enabling students to decipher word meanings from surrounding text. This fosters independent comprehension skills. These worksheets can be used for practice or assessment.

9.**Quizlet Practice:** Reinforce learning and encourage self-assessment with Quizlet practice sets tailored to the vocabulary words covered in the lesson. This interactive tool allows students to review and quiz themselves.

10**PDF file** 9 organizers, activities, and quizzes

11 **Fun Fact** video link are inserted throughout to bring important elements of the story into context and aid comprehension

DIGITAL USES IN THE CLASSROOM:

· Introduce new story

· Provide backstory to text

· Stimulate group discussion/prediction

· Create predictions about text

· Use as distance learning resource

· Post on webpage for review

· Add to electronic notebooks

· Provide test review

· Prompt Writing or Research assignments

· Grammar study / parts of speech

· Discuss Word Connotation

PRINTABLE USES: word walls and interactive notebooks

This bundle is also available in PowerPoint!

Enjoy -from Kiwious About Vocab!

This bundle includes the in-class and digital versions of our highly popular Christmas ELA Escape Rooms!

There is no wonder why escape rooms are so popular; they are engaging and encourage people to work together and think creatively in order to solve different puzzles... all while trying to beat the clock. Now, you can facilitate our Christmas ELA Escape Room in the classroom and at home for distance learning with this meticulously-crafted bundle. All tasks are skills-based so that with these fun lessons, learning is not sacrificed. Whether they are in school or at home, your students will be having so much fun that they won’t even realize the higher order thinking skills they are applying in the playing of these games!

How does it work?

Your students are stuck in their digital classroom and cannot leave for Christmas vacation until they solve 5 challenging Language Arts skills-based tasks about Christmas!

• Fa-la-la-la Figurative Language: In the first task, students must identify the figurative language devices used in popular Christmas songs. Shaded boxes in the correct answers form the first code.
• 'Twas the Night Before Christmas: In the second task, students must order the plot events of Clement Clarke Moore's famous poem, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, on Freytag's Pyramid. Once solved, corresponding letters reveal the second code.
• Christmas Fun Facts: In the third task, students will read 8 fun facts about Christmas and must identify the parts of speech of underlined words within the passages. When matched correctly, shaded boxes will reveal the third code.
• Xmas Around the World: In the fourth task, students must correct commonly confused words (like except and accept) in passages about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Once complete, they must unscramble shaded boxes to reveal the fourth code.
• Encrypted Message: In the final task, students must solve an encrypted Christmas message using the codes and clues from the first four tasks. Then they must figure out the final line that completes the message. Once they write that on the final page, they can share the document with you (or sing it to you in the in-class version) and escape to Christmas vacation!

In-Class Escape Room Includes:

- Escape Room Basics

- Detailed Day-Of Instructions

- Escape Room Print Checklist

- Student Teams Chart

- Welcome Sign for Your Door

- Materials for 5 Tasks: task signs to be folded upright, task instructions (2 per page for easy printing), and necessary information to be kept at stations

- Student Answer Booklets (small and large options)

- Teacher Answer Keys

- Code Word Theme Open Response for homework or in-class writing activity

Digital Escape Room Includes:

- Instructions for how to access and share escape room and answer key through Google Drive

- Materials for 5 Tasks: digital task signs, detailed task instructions, and supplementary materials

- Digital Student Worksheets

- Digital Teacher Answer Key

*Note that this is the digital version of the Christmas Escape Room; tasks are identical, just reformatted for digital experience. Requires use of Google Slides.*

Suitable for middle and high school students and is ideal during the month of December.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Click to Follow Language Arts Excellence

Are you hunting for a FUN way to get your ESL ELL secondary students writing? This Halloween themed unit includes resources to break down teaching writing and provides examples and aids! Perfect for after testing and to wrap up your year. 

Use the fun and interactive slide show to walk your students through the creative writing process for writing Halloween scary stories!

Your Students Will:

• Develop vocabulary
• Analyze text
• Apply knowledge
• Practice speaking and listening skills while completing the activities
• Work on developing writing skills
• Complete research
• Have the opportunity to practice using Vocaroo

This resource is ENGAGING and will have your secondary ESL students excited about writing. NO PREP

What’s Included:

• 70+ slides that help you teach HOW to write a scary story
• Writing examples for EACH part of the plot (rising action, climax, etc)
• Scary story EXAMPLE STORIES (5 stories)
• Guide for students to work in groups & ANALYZE sample scary stories & fill out an organizer and present their analysis to the class
• Descriptive Writing Practice PDF Printable
• Parts of a plot/Plot Line PDF Printable
• Engaging Pear Deck slides that will walk YOU the teacher through EVERY step of the writing unit so you have NO PREP!
• Tons of visuals and language frames
• Templated student slides for students to use to create their presentations!
• Student Conference PDF Printable
• Writing Rubric PDF Printable 
• Writing Checklist PDF Printable
• Student Self Reflections PDF Printable
• Guide for presenting and creating slides
• Slide to teach how to record their stories on Vocaroo

Look what other educators are saying:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ David P. wrote, “My students loved using this resource to help them write scary stories. Most students were engaged in writing. This product helped all students--all ability levels--to complete the writing assignment. ”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Kelsey S. wrote, “Great resource! My kids loved the slides, it was easy to use, engaging, and effective for helping my students use sentence structures we’ve been practicing. I love it!” 

This Scary Story Unit will bring some fun and engagement to your classroom! You don’t want to miss out on the EXCITING unit. Make sure to add this resource to your cart.

Check out these resources:

➡️Bundle & SAVE - ESL Scary Story Writing Bundle

Multilingual Classroom Monthly Newsletter - Editable