Stressed and other randomness...

Do you Facebook? Have you followed me on FB yet? No?? Well, click on the above to take you to my blog's Facebook page and like it! I do post and will start posting more now that I will have more time. I do post more on my personal account (you can friend me there, too! Although I do warn you, I am more candid in my personal page but it's me!) but you will see a posting about my current obsession (it occurs, oh-- about every few months or weeks, depending on when the mood strikes me) with 

Yes, it's that time of year where I am stressed to the max with end of the year paperwork, final projects that I am trying to *sneak* in and finish, and cleaning out my room!!! Please tell me you are in the same boat! The worst part is having to pack up my room ALL. OVER.AGAIN when I.JUST.MOVED.IN this year! Yes, I have to pack up my bookcases, metal cabinets and put them all in boxes and stack them on the shelves or filing cabinets so my floors can be waxed, cleaned, etc... It was just so nice in my old room where I could still pack up a few boxes and place my furniture on the carpet. My new room (which is smaller, by the way, and is already packed to the hilt with everything under the sun) has to be all packed in our ONE (yes, I said ONE) post planning day-- never mind all the other paper work we have to do! So, I am not sure one jar of Nutella will get me through this! LOL! So, I have slowly but surely been getting my paperwork done so I don't have to buy the megasize jar of Nutella as the deadlines approach. How many days do you have for post planning and do you do the same things I do--reading and math cards, pinks and blues, CUM folders, report cards (obviously!), etc..? 

In other randomness, this weekend we celebrate Memorial Day! Thank you to all that have served or are serving! It was a relaxing weekend with the family. We had some friends over and Gabriel had been talking about making smores because that's what they do at camp. I look over at my son and tell him that he has never been camping because Asian people never camp! I dare you-- look in any camp site, you will not find an Asian family there or any Asian family depicted in a Gander Mountain catalog because we just don't camp! LOL! So anyway... here we are making smores the only way I know how: 

It was fun! We have the best times together!!! Love my friends and family!! I am especially looking forward to my girls weekend at the beach after school ends!!! Cannot wait! It is always fun to be with my first grade girls. They are my family, too! Love them so much.

Speaking of first grade, this week we will be working out of my Surf's Up unit! If you haven't picked it up yet, you still can from TPT! Click on the picture to take you there!

I just printed out my centers from my unit and cannot wait! All I have to say is CUTENESS!! There is a writing craftivity for "How to Build a Sandcastle".  And so much more!! 

Here is a cute video to go with it:

Only 6 more days left for me!! How many for you? 

Mission: Nouns

Now, I know what you may be thinking... why in the world is she teaching nouns with 8 days of school left? Well as any good teacher, when I see my kiddos struggle with a skill, no matter what time of year, I am going to reteach it!!! Can I get an "Amen!!"?? Last week I used a word sort with nouns, verbs, and adjectives and my class (even my high kids) were struggling with sorting the words! 

Needless to say I was very frustrated! So I started yesterday and  reviewed what nouns were and read:

And passed out a few magnifying lenses and as I read, had kids listen out for nouns. As they listened for nouns, we placed them in our handy, dandy chart:

Their hands were raised, waving and ready as they spied and listened for nouns in the book! I loved their enthusiasm! Today, I reviewed nouns with School House Rock's song "Nouns"

And then turned the work over to them: their mission was to find as many nouns as they could in 7 minutes (could've been more but was pressed for time..) 

and played Mission: Impossible theme music twice and off they went! They were ready to find all the nouns they could!

If you'd like to download this simple activity, just click the 'I Spy a Noun" worksheet to take you Google Drive. 

In other words, this week we have been learning all about sharks. My kids have been introduced into Jimmy Buffet and have been singing "Fins" all week! 

Sorry it's blurry but they were moving so fast! Love it! If you are still in school (like me) and are looking for a  great unit for sharks, be sure to check out my Sharks Mini-Unit for Primary Learners (click the picture to take you to my TPT store) :

Tomorrow is First Grade Sneak-a-Peak where our little kinders come up to first grade for an hour to see what it's like! That means my little one will be gracing one of our classrooms tomorrow!!! Wow! 

Have a great week!

It's SHARK Week and a few other random things!

I live in Florida. I LOVE flip flops (check out the blog name). I LOVE Jimmy Buffet!!! If you live in FL you would have to be living under a rock if you didn't know who Jimmy Buffet is... SO go ahead and click on the video and sing FINS with me!! Make the triangle fins above your head! No one is watching and just sing your heart out because this week in my classroom is  SHARKS WEEK!!!

My class has been looking forward to this week. They are so excited and I plan on introducing them to good ole' Jimmy with this song as our transition song this week. As you may have noticed I always post a song or two or five to go along with a theme of mine. Music is so powerful and it's good for kids to experience different genres of music much like the different genres of books we give them So, yes, my class will be Parrot Heads for a week!

This week we will be learning all about sharks and working out of my newest unit being offered on TPT!!(click on the preview to take you to my store)

I will post some pictures as soon as we start! 

Speaking of sharks... this is my own little shark (modeling the shark headband included in my unit if you are interested!!!)...

My little boy will be participating in his Kindergarten end of the year ocean program next week! Yikes!!! Next year he will be in First Grade!!! Time really flies! He really has grown so much and I love his teacher...Mrs. Gaglione!! She has done such a wonderful job and I am so thankful that she is in his life!!! 

Anyhow, back to school stuff... we are slowly winding down... Last week was the last topic in math: Geometry. We did a geometry review with these cute "Cootie Catchers" for geometry. Now, let me go back on this since I am an old person...since when are they called cootie catchers? I thought they were fortune tellers! When I was little a cootie was something you got when a little boy you didn't like touched you and then you had to do the "circle, circle, dot, dot thing..." Apparently not... In any case, my class L-O-V-E-D them!!

Click on the image to download your copy! I promise you won't have to give yourself a cootie shot! LOL!

We also had our butterflies hatch! The kids have truly enjoyed watching them grow! I HIGHLY recommend buying a milkweed plant from your local plant nursery and starting this way versus ordering a caterpillar kit from one of the larger science distributors (unless you live somewhere where this is not possible) because it is just so much prettier to watch a monarch caterpillar munch it's way through the milkweed leaves and get big and fat (sorry no pictures-- I was busy!) and then turn into a pretty pupa and then watch it hatch! Plus, it's way cheaper to buy a plant $4.50 or so than a kit. I used some tulle and a tomato plant guard thing (I cannot think of the word-- but that circular wired cage like thing you put around it) to keep it all contained. No more than $10.00 for the whole project. Totally worth it!! 

Father's Day is in my upcoming plans this week and if you haven't downloaded my Father's Day in a Bottle freebie, click on the image to do so!! We are doing this this week. It has everything you need to make this project a success!!

Already this has been a LONG post but there has been so much going on that I just had to share with you!!! I am so close to 100 followers! If you are new to reading my blog, please join in on the fun and follow me on my blog and if you like the products you see, be sure to follow me on TPT! Please help me to the 100 follower (or more) mark! 

10 more days until SUMMER!!! Just keep swimming... Just keep swimming!!!