Classroom Reveal!

Yesterday was my 12th Meet the Teacher! I must say it was the hottest one I ever had. 

HOT. As in temperature,

We had no AC in the whole school!!

Yeah... I know! LOL! You cannot control these things and we did the best we could! 

I was so excited to meet my new babies this year in my new classroom theme: Under the Sea! I tried to create an underwater theme in my room without breaking my budget (which we all know as teacher is very hard to do!). Luckily I was able to reuse some of the things I already had in my room! It came out fabulous! I could not be any happier! 

My bulletin board outside my room. I do this board every year. Nothing fancy here! Just some bulletin board paper and imagination! I really love learning about oceans-- in fact it's a personal favourite of mine! It's a theme I usually do at the end of the year but since it's my theme this year, it will be one I will incorporate all year! 

Who knew these would have multiple uses??

I wanted my kids to feel like they were walking through seaweed so I just took leftover grass skirt material (I found them at the Dollar Tree! So easy to cut and made great seaweed.)

View from my doorway. Again, I cut up the grass skirts into strips and hung them from my ceiling. I realize that some of you may not be able to hang stuff from the ceiling. So sorry! 

My math focus board. I put some of the math strategy posters from my Math Strategies Poster pack. I do not intend to display all of them at once. I will change them as we focus on one or two strategies at a time but for now, I wanted to put "something" up! 

A view of my ABC line! I couldn't wait to put this up! It's part of my Ocean Decor set!! It's a combo of ocean and beach! Just brightens up my room! 

Number line and class rules! They are eye level with the kids when they sit on my carpet and serves as a great reminder for them! You can download my Reef Rules Posters for free here.

My class library-- "School of Readers". These fish are from Creative Teaching Press and each have my student's names on them. Too cute!!  I bought my net from Oriental Trading. I've had it for so long-- there are a few tears but I think that makes it authentic! 

Reading Counts Board. I laminated the point cards so that I just have to write on them and done! No more cut outs and moving pieces! You can download them for free here. 

Reading Beach Library

Isn't this fabulous?? I found the tutorial from Party City. It was super easy to do once I got all the pieces I needed. Several hot glue mishaps (may have burned off my fingerprints, too! ha!) and I love my masterpiece! 

A close up of my blow fish! Just took some lanterns and cut some fish parts. Again, easy and reused things I already had! 

I love my manta ray! You can't see it but it's hanging over my desk. I took some black foam board and seriously, just free handed it. I know-- I'm like that. I work off lines of symmetry and drew what it would look like (first on scrap paper and cut it out as a sample) and then I cut my ray one half at a time from the foam board. That's why you see some tape on his tail (that, and my little one broke his tail! LOL!). After I cut them out, I taped them together. I had intended for the wings to be uplifted once hung on my ceiling but didn't work out that way. I still love it! 

Finally, my team this year! I love these girls! I come to school every day knowing that I have true besties that work with me. They are like my sisters and I am so blessed to be with them! Could not ask for a better team to teach with. I love them! 

So, that is my looonnnggg classroom reveal! Hope you gathered some ideas for your class! School starts Monday for me! 

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!!! 

Happy Mother's Day!!

Me and my two monkeys... Aidan (L) and Gabriel (R)! They are the loves of my life and I adore them with all my heart! As Bryan Adams sings.. "Everything I do, I do it for you..." They are like night and day-- Gabriel is very type A and is structured; Aidan is very calm and happy go lucky. Can you guess who takes after me??? Not Aidan!!! Aidan may look like me but is totally Brian in personality-- thank goodness. I cannot have three of me running around this house! LOL!!

My mother's day tea was fabulous! Most of the moms came and it was just a sweet time together. They came in and the kids presented them with their tea ladies hats (for this idea and more check out my previous post), and then they were served light refreshments by their own students. 

Afterward, they had some activities to choose from:

The kids got to paint nails and give chair massages... Sorry that I didn't get pictures but I will and post them! It was so cute to see. I will tell you that only the girls participated in the nail painting but I know they gave great chair massages!!!

I cut out foam mustaches, glasses, hats, whatever was fun and put them on a stick and they had so much fun playing around!! Here is my cutie playing around!

This was a really sweet one! They were to write a sweet note to their child and vice versa. I kinda left this one alone and didn't take pictures or really read them but some of the notes from the moms were long and I could tell were so heartfelt! Awe!!! Here is a copy if you would like to keep it for next year! Just click on the picture for your download from Google Drive. 

All in all, it was a great morning! The moms loved their gifts and I cried, like I always do as I thanked them for the opportunity of being their child's teacher. I have to say that I really LOVE this class and I will truly miss them when they move up. I have tried to prepare them as much as I can and they are ready to spread their wings and go! So I am going to enjoy these last few instructional weeks with them! 

Next week I am starting my ocean unit then after that will do a week of SHARKS!!! for the boys! They love it! I like to separate ocean animals (fish, hermit crabs, star fish) and sharks because there is so much content you can teach with both. 

I will be posting about a mini shark unit in a few days! Here is a cute craft I do that week. Shark Jaws!!! There are no directions on the website on how to make it so I just free handed a jaw pattern to cut on a paperplate.  Fun times!!

Hope you all have a relaxing Mother's Day with your families! Enjoy your day together! It will just be me and  my 2 little ones tomorrow  (The life of a pilot's wife can be lonely...)! We will go to my Mom and Dad's and have lunch with them... SO thankful for my mom because she helps me so much and just adores the boys!