Me on the Map Flipbooks

I LOVE all things maps, globes, geography... you name it!  

In my classroom I had a collection of globes displayed throughout the room.  One of my favorite back-to-school activities was 'Classroom Detective' where students had to explore the room and get to know the space.  The last question was always: How many globes does Mrs. Oas have? I remember hearing "Oh, there's another one!" or "That one has two globes on it!" or even "Don't forget the globe pen on her desk!"  I think there were so many globes they often counted them multiple times.  

Oh well.  

The take away?  

They knew I LOVED globes!  This then lead into sharing my passion of traveling and learning about the world as much as I could! 

My 2nd favorite activity is then teaching geography and some basic map skills with a 'Me on the Map' flipbook.  I originally saw examples online but never felt inspired by what was out there... so I did what I often do... I CREATED my own! 

I would cut and paste all the different layers of maps starting with the Earth and slowly working down to our school neighborhood.  I assembled the books and copied all the maps they would need to cut and paste and we'd work a little each day to finish by the end of the week.  

This is what a finished flipbook would look like: 

We'd hang them around the room and at the end of the year I would put them into their 'Memory Books' to save as a keepsake.  

As I've been creating products for TpT I just knew I needed to create a digital version of this flipbook so others could share my LOVE of geography too!  I had to brainstorm the best way to make it accessible for each state, so it didn't require too much 'extra prep' on the teachers to get them ready.  

What did I end up with?  

50 INDIVIDUAL US STATE 'Me on the Map' FLIPBOOKS! 

It's been a long week getting them published but they're ready to go! 

I LOVE how the new digital version that's READY-TO-PRINT turned out and hope they'll be useful for others too! 

Click here to find your state and download:  Me on the Map Flipbooks

As I wrap this up here at home, sitting in our 'office' and staring at the hanging world map thinking, where will we travel next?  I hope you all continue to explore the world around you and travel often! 

Find your balance,

Shelby Oas 

Motivational Testing Treat Tags

Looking to help MOTIVATE and INSPIRE your students for an upcoming test?  Look no further!  These simple, READY-TO-PRINT treat tags will do the trick!

I always LOVED creating treats for my students.  Both as an outlet for myself to do something creative, as well as helping to encourage my students too.

Whether it's just an end-of-the-unit test in class, or the ACTUAL state testing, little treats like these help to disguise the stress and anxiety of the situation and make it a little more memorable instead! 

When I started my TpT store I knew I wanted to recreate these fun tags that I've used for so many years in my classroom.  They're updated since my original versions of course.  Thank you modern fonts and electronic backgrounds!  I had fun creating the clipart for each of these tags too.  Thank you Procreate app and my iPad!  Making these designs is SO MUCH EASIER than it was before... or maybe I've just learned how to use these apps more efficiently?  Either way, I'm excited to be able to share them with others online too! 

If you're interested in creating these fun testing tags too, check out my resource here: 

Motivational Testing Tags

These are the 8 Ready-to-Print designs: 

Good luck as you continue to MOTIVATE, INSPIRE, and ENCOURAGE your students to do their best! 

We teach them to work hard without needing to earn a reward, but having a fun treat always makes it THAT much better right? 

Find your balance,

Shelby Oas 

Food Group Activities

It's been all about the FOOD GROUPS in PE this week so I decided to create some resources to help my students better understand each food group and a chance for some hands-on learning.  Yes, even in PE they can do some 'actual work' to help review the health concepts they're learning. 

With it being my first year in PE I wasn't sure how it'd go if I incorporated some 'actual work' into my teaching and was a little nervous to see how it'd go... 

Surprisingly, the kids left saying "That was so fun!"  Who knew?  

It gave me hope that I can create and include more content into my PE lessons.  Obviously, I need to get them moving as much as possible when I only see them for 30 minutes, two times a week, but I'm excited to see what else I can create! 

 

Download these resources here:

Food Group Posters

Food Groups Flipbook

Find your balance, 

Shelby Oas 

Spread some encouragment

Who doesn't need a little encouragement every now and then? Every week. Every day.  Every hour on recent days?  I hear you.  Me too! 

Just like this note says:  Sometimes we just need a LIFE SAVER to help keep us afloat!  [Use daily or as often as needed].

Can I have the whole bowl?

Sometimes just hearing the simple "We got this" from a colleague is enough to keep pushing through.  It helps to know that others are right there alongside you in the arena.  Especially with our current 'pandemic' situation it makes teaching VERY different to say the least.  EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

I originally made these treats 10 years ago [I know right?] at the end of a trimester as we were all preparing for parent-teacher conferences.  Teachers, staff, anyone working in the building needed a little life saver to keep us afloat! I took this as an opportunity to put aside all things teaching, which ALWAYS means I work on some kind of craft.

See original post here:  Sometimes we just need a 'Life Saver'

Like everything, I made the old new again! Thank you modern fonts and paper backgrounds to give the 'crafty' look without having to layer papers and require all the tedious cutting.  Since I'm also keeping up with the times and creating my designs to be digital and accessible online, it's in my TpT store.

Download the new tags here: Encouragement Tag with Life Savers

I'm excited to revive an oldie but a goodie.  I also enjoyed a nice laugh at the old design and appreciated how far my 'crafting' has come along.  

Teaching warriors out there, keep showing up each day!  Despite the daily challenges you constantly face, you got this!  And just remember, sometimes we just need a LIFE SAVER to help keep us afloat!  

Find your balance,

Shelby

Valentine's Day Goodies

Valentine's Day is just around the corner!  Every year I look forward to creating a new valentine for my students.  Creating cute tags or personalized goodie bags was my way to channel my creativity and find a break from the demands of teaching. 

As you might know if you've joined me on my previous posts, I'm no longer teaching in the classroom but in the gym.  I didn't even want to entertain the idea of creating some 400 'ish Valentine's for all the students at school this year. Are you crazy? So I did the next best thing... I'm sharing some ideas with you to use with your students! 

Last year I created a Valentine's Day word search card and taped on one of those fun pens with ALL the colors.  What were  they called?Okay, just googled it... a shuttle pen?  Retractable pen.  You get the point.  I bought the pens on Amazon and used Washi tape to secure them on each Valentine.

Since I'm not in the classroom, I created a digital version to share with others in my TpT store.  There's two versions of this Valentine if you're interested, 2 per page or 4.   I wanted to have an interactive Valentine that DIDN'T include candy and this worked out perfectly! If you're interested, check out the resource here: 

Valentine's Day Word Search card

...and I'm not done yet!  I also created this fun gift tag that would work for a Valentine's Day goodie too!  I originally created this tag as a back-to-school goodie for my students.  Why not use them for Valentine's too?  Simply attach them to some type of 'mint' candy or gum (if you dare).  You can even ramp it up and put the candies into a bag and tie with a cute bow.  That always made my teacher heart happy.  Then, once I see how quickly the students tear off the tag to get to the candy it was over. Ugh.  Oh well, it was always the time and thought I put into creating these goodies for my students that was meaningful for me anyways.  I know there's kiddos out there that have kept the tags or enjoyed the moment and I hope they know how special they continue to be to me!   

If you think you'd like to create this Valentine goodie check the resource here: Valentine 'Mint' to be Tag  It'll be great to use for back-to-school as well! Kids don't remember things from September to February anyways, right?  

Thanks for taking the time to check it out or simply read my ramblings! 

Find your balance,

Shelby 

Fraction Flip book

Fraction flipbook!

I 💗 fractions! As a classroom teacher I loved teaching fractions.  Maybe it was the hands-on learning of folding the paper strips into equal parts (although they were RARELY equal) or coloring and labeling all the unit fractions.  I don't know?  It was a straight forward concept of equal shares and what kid doesn't get 'making it equal' between 2, 3 or 4 kids? Am I right? Especially if it's a chocolate bar we're sharing you'd better bet they'll make sure it's being shared equally! 

Anyways, as I'm recreating resources for my TpT store I just KNEW I had to redo my old favorite.  The Fraction Flip book!  Back before the days of flip books and fancy fonts, or at least before I knew how to create a flip book, I did the only thing I knew how to do.  Copy and paste! I printed all the labels, cut everything out, and created one flip book with my grade-level colleague to use as our 'master copy'.  

You can check out the OG Fraction flip book we created on this old post of mine:

Old School Flipbook

I used this same flip book for MANY years and had no interest in creating a new one until this year because I'd need to be able to share the resource digitally with others. Funny thing too, I'm no longer teaching in the classroom this year so I can't even use the resource with my own students. Ugh! I'm now teaching Health & Fitness and obviously won't need to teach fractions anytime soon.

After a lot of problem solving and figuring out how to create pages that would print back-to-back and up side down.  No really!  There were A LOT of papers recycled throughout this process to say the least.  All in all, I was able to create the new and improved Fraction flip book! I LOVE how it turned out.  I was so excited to have tackled 

Check it out here in my TpT store: Fraction Flipbook

As always, feel free to share feedback if you use this product or if there's something you'd change or like to see.  I'd love to see how you use it as well!  Tag me in your photos @find.your_balance on instagram! https://www.instagram.com/find.your_balance/ 

Find your balance,

Shelby

Hello again!

Hello!

Long time no see. Almost five years to be exact. 

In June I finished my 12th year of teaching in the classroom.

In September, I started year 13 with a BIG change!  I've FINALLY made the switch into the gym, teaching Health & Fitness.  [More on this new position to come!]

Wow, a lot has happened!  I can't believe it's been that long, but then again time seems to fly by so quickly anymore.  Instead of going back through a play-by-play of all the changes, I'm going to start fresh today.  I do love to reminisce through all the old posts and laugh at how far I've come.    

"You should never regret anything in life.  If it's good, it's wonderful.  If it's bad, it's experience."

With that being said I've finally taken the plunge to put all those 'things I've created' onto Teachers pay Teachers! If you dig back into my original posts of 2012 (yes 2012), ten years ago to my original posts where I would share all my teacherin' crafts and projects I created for my classroom, you'll see some of the same ideas revamped with modern fonts and color schemes!  Again, I enjoyed looking back and having a laugh at my original work compared to what I create now.  Too funny! 

So yes, I created a storefront on TpT and now spend my free time in between teaching and trying to have a life recreating the resources that I originally created for my classroom, and the new ones I'll begin to create, to share with others.  I'm SO excited and thankful to Tyler who gave me the encouragement and support to take on this new challenge!  I look forward to seeing how it grows. 

Check it out here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Find-Your-Balance

Check back for more posts about the products I've created and follow along as I start this new journey.  It's all about finding YOUR balance, and for me that's having an outlet to be creative and share what I love doing!  You can also follow along on my instagram account:  @find.your_balance 

https://www.instagram.com/find.your_balance/

I'd love to hear your feedback if you purchase any of my products or how they work in your classroom!  Let me know if there's anything you'd change or maybe something you need!  

"It takes a village... and coffee"

Find your balance,

Shelby