I subbed for 5 years in everything from Pre-K to 6th grade. I taught school for 16 years in grades 2nd-4th. For 3 years, I worked as a Literacy Specialist. I have an ELAD certification for ESL students. My masters degree is in Curriculum and Instruction, and offer teachers in my area a Professional Development course through Dominican University of California every summer.
If you are using The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate as a read-aloud or book club in your classroom, this packet is a great way to connect both short and longer research projects to the topics in the book. The packet offers advanced organizers for 7 short (1-2 day) research projects and 1 long (3-5 day) project to wrap up the unit by creating a report about a specific type of natural disaster of their choosing. ELA standards addressed include point of view, asking and answering question
If you are using The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate as a read-aloud or book club in your classroom, this packet is a great way to connect both short and longer research projects to the topics in the book. The packet offers advanced organizers for 7 short (1-2 day) research projects and 1 long (3-5 day) project to wrap up the unit by creating a report about a specific type of natural disaster of their choosing. ELA standards addressed include point of view, asking and answering questions
This is a cross curricular unit on the Donner Party using the historical fiction book, The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds from the My Name is America series. It begins with a page to assess students' prior knowledge, followed by pages for response to literature, maps practice, math story problems and graph, card game to practice math skills, and a Powerpoint showing the key landmarks from the Donner journey. Perfect for having students create their own journals and ending with comparing and cont
This collection of holiday workbooks are perfect for centers or as independent or guided classwork. Each booklet focuses on information text, comprehension, context clues, and creative thinking puzzles. Some feature writing and/or craft activities. The Mother's and Father's Day booklets feature writing activities and end with the final pages becoming a card. These booklets are a perfect way to learn about the holidays while focusing on the standards.
This is a student workbook that allows note taking, illustrating, and reflecting on connections between the water cycle, ecosystems, weather, resources, and energy. There are graphic organizers on most pages. Includes GLAD inquiry charts and content dictionary pages. Answer pages are included.
Water Connections Workbook by April Benamati is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Daily Tic Tac Toe guide for self directing participation in Daily 5 Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and Word Work. In the document format, it is easy to revise to meet your classroom needs.
Strategy reminder cards for testing state and explain a variety of strategies good test takers use. Includes, Go Back and Look, Plug It In, Mental Math, Context Clues, and more. Use as bulletin board set or shrink to make signal or flashcards for students to identify the strategy being modeled in class or for them to model for their peers. Focus on a featured strategy of the week that you will look for as you monitor the class.
This collection of holiday workbooks are perfect for centers or as independent or guided classwork. Each booklet focuses on information text, comprehension, context clues, and creative thinking puzzles. Some feature writing and/or craft activities. The perfect way to learn about the holidays while focusing on the standards.
If you are using The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate as a read-aloud or book club in your classroom, this packet is a great way to connect both short and longer research projects to the topics in the book. The packet offers advanced organizers for 6 short (1-2 day) research projects and 1 long (3-5 day) project to wrap up the unit by creating an animal report from an endangered animals website. The packet also encourages students to create artistic projects inspired by the topics they r
This collection of holiday workbooks are perfect for centers or as independent or guided classwork. Each booklet focuses on information text, comprehension, context clues, and creative thinking puzzles. Some feature writing and/or craft activities. These booklets are a perfect way to learn about the holidays while focusing on the standards.
Student workbook pages to create original works by each student in a variety of styles. Includes a cover and a vocabulary page with instructions on writing. Most workbook pages give directions on how to write a specific style of poem with an example included. The bio-poem is the exception as the format is so lengthy. The final page offers students the opportunity to create a poem in their favorite style.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
This booklet is designed to share the story of how and why Indigenous People's Day is celebrated and includes comprehension questions. A second expository article on symbolism in Native American art follows with an activity asking students to use what they learned about featured shapes in Native American art to design their own rug. The booklet ends with Word Play activities to aid in using context clues and creative thinking.
3rd - 6th
English Language Arts, Informational Text, Native Americans
Use the saying, "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb," to explain figurative language and how a simile can take two unrelated things and connect them based on similar characteristics. Brainstorm descriptions of lions and lambs. Sort words that describe each animal. Discuss how these characteristics relate to the month of March.
Help your students learn that thanksgiving looks different and takes place at different times around the world. Here are 12 celebrations to discuss and each has 2 writing prompts to practice comparing and contrasting similar topics. The book ends with 3 math activities for collecting and displaying the same data in different ways including a chart/table, line plot, and bar graph. Guaranteed to keep students busy throughout November!
Perfect for ELL and SpEd students or the whole class when researching an animal to create a report, book, or presentation. Offers room to write 3 resources researched and provides suggested headings for each section. There is a place to add key vocabulary terms and add ideas for text features.
This pack is made to compare Tonight on the Titanic with Titanic Lost and Found both of which I have comprehension sets made for - use them together or separately. Includes a writing piece for a 4 paragraph opinion paper using comparing and contrasting with directions for each paragraph. Addresses author's purpose and point of view. Requires students to define and compare-contrast fiction and non-fiction genres.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Interna
Perfect for circle-seat-center, independent work, or guided work for the week before Spring Break. A short informative article summarizes spring break and asks 3 comprehension questions. There is an opinion writing prompt with organizer that will require notebook paper or a computer to complete the response. Three word play activities are included to practice context clues and critical thinking skills. There is an exercise in reasoning asking students to pick a place to go on spring break, expla
Instead of working on Christmas worksheets, here is a workbook everyone in your class can use. The Winter Workbook has 2 non-fiction articles - one about snowmen and the other on the science of snowflakes. There are a dozen context clue riddles to discover fun winter activities, a snowflake making activity to make 6 sided snowflakes, a winter acrostic with word bank, and a winter animal word search with answer key included.
This book is made to allow you to focus on either the history of Easter eggs if you are at a public school, the symbolism of Easter if you are at a private school, or both if you homeschool. The workbook has an expository text with comprehension questions, an informative article and activity on decorating eggs as the Polish do, and three word play activities to practice context clues and creative thinking.
Learn about George Washington's birthday and how it became Presidents Day through this informational article and comprehension questions. Solve some context clue riddles before a little word play activity using only the letters found in Presidents Day. To wrap up the booklet, students will write their own presidential speech.
I subbed for 5 years in everything from Pre-K to 6th grade. I taught school for 16 years in grades 2nd-4th. For 3 years, I worked as a Literacy Specialist. I have an ELAD certification for ESL students. My masters degree is in Curriculum and Instruction, and offer teachers in my area a Professional Development course through Dominican University of California every summer.
Teaching style
I believe students learn best through guided discovery used often in small groups or partnerships where they are able to discuss and question their own understanding. Being able to talk with their peers before sharing their ideas and own understanding gives all students the opportunity to process what they are learning, change perspectives, and grow their understanding and confidence. Every classroom should be a safe place to make mistakes, so that mistakes become normalized and turned into a means to grow and shine.
Awards & shining teacher moments
Excellence in Math
Employee of the Year
My own education history
AS in Marketing
BA in Elementary Education
MA in Curriculum and Instruction
Additional biographical information
I have been trained in Write From the Beginning, Words Their Way, ELAD, Readers and Writers Workshop, FOSS, and GLAD.
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