I've taught upper elementary for 22 years and love developing curriculum and activities that bridge the gap between research and theory with practical classroom implementation.
This Christmas Fraction Project blends academic rigor with seasonal excitement for unforgettable Christmas math activities. Through this Fractions Christmas project-based learning lesson, students help Santa and his elves build a magical Christmas Village—all while practicing critical fraction skills. Whether you’re working on coloring by fraction, equivalent fractions, or area and perimeter, this resource gives you options for differentiation and depth. The project is designed to be flexibl
Grab this time-saving Holidays Around the World Reading Comprehension resource—perfect for strengthening informational reading skills in your upper elementary classroom!This comprehensive set of differentiated nonfiction passages and comprehension questions for Holidays Around the World is ideal for teachers looking to bring winter holiday celebrations from around the globe into the classroom. Designed with instructional flexibility in mind, this resource supports whole group lessons, guided re
FUN & Easy St. Patrick’s Day Activities for Upper Elementary! ☘️ Looking for no-prep, engaging St. Patrick’s Day activities for your upper elementary students? This print-and-go resource is packed with eight exciting activities that combine reading, writing, math, social studies, and science—all with a festive St. Patrick’s Day twist! Whether you need a quick literacy center, a fun math challenge, or a hands-on science experiment, this pack has you covered. Perfect for morning work, center
Bring math to life this holiday season with a festive geometry project and Christmas math craft your students will remember for years to come!Are your students struggling to see the real-world connections in geometry? This creative project-based learning activity flips the script by combining hands-on math with seasonal fun in this Christmas math project! In this engaging Christmas Geometry Project, your class will take on the role of Santa’s design team, using geometric vocabulary and precision
Get no prep and differentiated Thanksgiving math activities with these rigorous and engaging Thanksgiving themed math lessons. In this resource, you will receive six no prep Thanksgiving math activities that are fun for students! These project-based learning activities will have students engaged in real-world math applications! In these Thanksgiving Math Activities you'll find:Geometric Feast-Students have to set a Thanksgiving table using different shaped platters and serving dishes. Part
Students can learn during the busy Halloween season! Each of the nine activities is meaningful and require students to apply multiplication and division skills and concepts. Some of the skills practiced are representations of multiplication, representations of division, one-step word problems, two-step word problems, arrays, missing numbers, patterns, and more! Each activity includes a title page, directions, necessary materials, and a recording sheet. Students can work in partners or independ
Encourage Christmas math problem solving with a fun and realistic Christmas Math Project your students will remember!This festive math-based activity turns your students into savvy decorators competing in a holiday decorating contest—all while managing a real-world budget. Perfect for upper elementary and middle school students, this project blends seasonal excitement with meaningful math application, critical thinking, and creativity. And the best part? It’s no prep for you! Whether you stretch
Save by purchasing both Holidays Around the World resources! Includes print and digital formats. The resource includes my Holidays Around the World Interactive Notebook and my Holidays Around the World Close Reading resources! What's Included in the interactive notebook?A picture of a completed interactive notebook entry for each country/culture.A color and black and white version of each activity to save on colored ink.Two interactive notebook templates for each country. What's Included in t
New Year Goals are updated for 2026! Help students bring in the new year with self-reflection lessons and goal setting activities. This is not a one time use resource, because it is updated each year. In this New Year Goals resource, you'll find student-friendly graphic organizers, goal setting sort, a goal setting action plan, and more! Developing and writing these S.M.A.R.T. goals will help students start the year in a positive direction. What's Included:What are goals posterS.M.A.R.T. g
Grab these Christmas reading comprehension and Christmas literacy activities to bring joy and structure to your classroom the week before Christmas vacation!The season is busy, minds are wandering, and yet the magic of a classroom community together around a good book still shines. This ready‑to‑use week‑long Christmas literacy unit makes that time meaningful—with five holiday picture books, paired reading, writing, Christmas STEM and art activities designed just for upper‑elementary learners (g
Keep your students motivated and engaged during the Halloween season with these fourth grade math centers. Halloween can be scary....sugar, parties, costumes....oh my! It can also be a great opportunity to engage students in meaningful math tasks that reinforce a rigorous curriculum. This Halloween math resource includes 10 Halloween math centers that reinforce math concepts taught in the first part of the school year. These activities were designed to be used as centers that can be organized w
Help your students dig deeper into nonfiction reading with the 2022 Winter Games themed close reading passages and questions. You can also use these passages and questions digitally with Google Classroom! There are ten nonfiction reading passages based on ten Winter Olympic Games themed passages. Since we all have students reading on many different reading levels, I've written each passage on three different reading levels to make differentiation a little easier. There are also three sets of q
Want to add a little spirit to your Christmas math centers? These seven Christmas math center activities are sure to be a hit with your students. What's Included in the Christmas Math Centers:What's in Santa's Bag-24 geometry riddlesChristmas Shopping-24 money related task cards that require students to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division word problems.What's in the Package-30 missing number problems with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division number sentences
These 4th Grade Christmas Math Centers include ten activities perfect for Christmas math review! Keep your students motivated and engaged during the holiday season with this Christmas Math Review resource . What's IncludedChristmas season can be a great opportunity to engage students in meaningful math tasks that reinforce a rigorous curriculum. These Christmas math centers include ten 4th grade math activities that are a great math review for concepts taught in the first half of the school year
This Christmas Around the World resource is an amazing way to use Christmas passages to teach nonfiction text structures! There are three ways you can use this Christmas Around the World resource:Task Card Version-there are two task cards per page. This includes a 2 on a page graphic organizer and a 1 on a page graphic organizer.Worksheet With Graphic OrganizerWorksheet With Questions-All questions are centered around the specific nonfiction text structure.Text Structures Include:DescriptionC
Grab this collection of Fun Christmas Activities your upper elementary students will actually look forward to!Looking for Christmas Activities that spark thinking and fill time meaningfully during the holiday season? This 12-activity bundle offers No Prep Christmas Activities that combine festive fun with real academic purpose. Designed especially for grades 3rd, 4th and 5th, this resource builds critical and divergent thinking through puzzles, math challenges, and creative language tasks—all in
Help your students dig deeper into nonfiction reading with this Christmas themed close reading passage and questions. There are three sets of questions for the passage. The first set of questions requires students to cite evidence in the text, and the second set of questions require students to analyze the text structure and word choice of the passage. The third set of questions have students respond to a question that promotes high order thinking. This is just a small picture of my Holidays A
One of the only days more challenging than Halloween may be the day AFTER Halloween. These 5 Halloween themed activities help students use their excitement over Halloween, trick-or-treating, and candy in a productive way. In this resource there is: a graphing activitya descriptive writing activitya science observations lessonan economics lesson on supply and demanda word problem activity where students answer questions using nutrition facts from popular Halloween candy.a Halloween STEM activit
We already know it's going to be a crazy day so week-why fight it? This Halloween themed resource includes TWO resources in ONE product. In the first resource there are 9 Halloween themed math activities that can be completed during math class, math centers, or math workshop. Best of all, it requires NO PREP! All activities were designed for upper elementary students, so they are perfect for third, fourth, and fifth grade. This includes teacher directions, student choice board, recording sheets
This holidays around the world interactive notebook makes the holiday season full of FUN and LEARNING!What's Included?A picture of a completed interactive notebook entry for each country/culture.A black and white version of each activity.All countries come with TWO interactive notebook templates where students can record what they learned, facts, important info, etc.Holidays Around the World Countries/Cultures:*Australia *Brazil *France *Germany *Greenland *Israel *Italy *Kwanzaa *Mexico *Sweden
I've taught upper elementary for 22 years and love developing curriculum and activities that bridge the gap between research and theory with practical classroom implementation.
Teaching style
I create engaging yet rigorous lessons that inspire students to think critically and outside the box. I incorporate a variety of teaching strategies to meet the diverse needs of my students, as well as find that balance between conceptual understanding and basic skills.
Awards & shining teacher moments
Teacher of the Year-2007, 2020
Unum Hall of Fame-2007
Grant Recipient for math manipulatives-2006
My own education history
BS in Elementary Education from Florida State
MA in Curriculum and Instruction
Ed.S. in Brain Research
Gifted Endorsement
Additional biographical information
Outside of teaching, developing curriculum, and blogging, I love spending time with my husband and two children. My daughter is six and my baby boy is growing up too fast.
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