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 

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