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Beach theme
- soft teal colors
- tan boxes
All black furniture (shelving units and bookcases)

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10ct outdoor colored string orb string lights                     - opalhouse™

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10ct Outdoor Colored String Orb String Lights - Opalhouse™

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Decorate your dining area, deck, patio and more in bright, colorful style with these Colored String Orb Lights from Opalhouse™. Perfect for lighting up any space, this set of colorful string lights includes 10 round, mini bulbs wrapped in a crisscross design for an enchanting display.

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also Michael's?

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IKEA - RÅSKOG, Utility cart, The sturdy construction and four casters make it easy for you to move the cart and use it wherever you like. It even fits in tight spaces because of its small size.Perfect as extra storage in your kitchen, hall, bedroom or home office.The adjustable middle section is easy to move to adapt to different storage needs.

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Which One Doesn't Belong?: A Shapes Book

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Which One Doesn't Belong? has won the Mathical Book Prize, which will be presented to Christopher Danielson at the National Math Festival in Washington, DC on April 22, 2017. The Mathical Book Prize is an annual award for fiction and nonfiction books that inspire children of all ages t...

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How Many Snails?

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how many snails?: a counting book (counting books (greenwillow books))

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juvenile fiction / concepts / counting & numbers

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juvenile nonfiction / concepts / counting & numbers

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juvenile nonfiction / mathematics / arithmetic

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How Many Snails?: A Counting Book (Counting Books (Greenwillow Books))

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A series of simple questions directs young readers to determine the differences between seemingly similar objects, encouraging them to develop powers of observation, discrimination, and visual analysis. There's plenty of opportunity to practice counting, too (but that's just the beginning!). With...

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Erin Condren

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Teacher Planners | Lesson Plan Books | Erin Condren

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A colorful must-have for teachers in and out of the classroom, each lesson planner helps to track attendance, store class rosters and monitor assignments!

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Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens, Medium Point (0.7mm), Assorted Colors, 24 Count

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Fact: dull, smudgy ink is a downer. So boost your writing fun-factor with Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens! With a rainbow of bright colors and smear-resistant ink that won't bleed through the page, these colored pens make writing a blast. The medium point (0.7mm) writes in bold, colorful lines so ...

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If you've been anywhere on the internet you know what a crate seat is... an ingenius combination of crate for storage and cushioned top for sitting. They are a perfectly clever addition to the classroom.

Although I've always admired them, I never really had the need for these stools in my own classroom until recently. Right before spring break my 4th grade students and I did a one week "trial" of flexible seating. It was a wonderful way to see if flexible seating was going to be beneficial for my students and do-able for me. For 5 days, we adjusted our tables so that we had 2 standing tables, 2 floor tables, a stool table, and a regular table and chairs. Throughout the week, the stool table was by far the most popular!

At the end of the week, students wrote to me and shared their experience. They also got a chance to privately vote on whether or not they wanted to keep flexible seating for the rest of the year. Overwhelmingly, students voted yes... thus the need for crate seats!

This week was spring break for my school district, so I had a bit of time to take on a Classroom DIY project. The Great Crate Seat Construction project was underway!

I bought my crates from The Container Store. They were $9.99 each, but are heavy duty. I purchased a sheet of plywood from Home Depot for $19. I love that Home Depot will cut the wood for you. That really sped up this project! I had the nice man at HD cut 14" x 14" squares for the seats.

While I was searching for a heavy duty fabric to cover the seat cushions, I came across this pattern. It was love at first sight! The fabric was a little spendy, but all I could think about was how much joy I would get by seeing those colors everyday.

I decided to buy the 2 in. thick cushion. There were other choices that were much thinner, but I wanted to make sure my kiddos were comfortable sitting on these seats all day. I ended up having to piece together some of the foam because I didn't have enough for 6 complete squares. I cut the pieces and, using some spray adhesive, attached them to the board. Once the fabric was on you couldn't tell that it wasn't one complete square. Yay!

After layering the plywood, cushion, and fabric, I used a staple gun to attach the fabric to the wood.

Here is one of the finished cushions. My technique improved after the first few.

Once the fabric was attached, the hubby screwed a 12" x 12" square of wood to the back of the cushion. My milk crates don't have an inner lip for the cushion to sit down in, so the cushions will sit on the outer rim of the crate. This 12" x 12" will keep the seat secure on the crate.

This pic shows how the seat fits on/in the crate.

Voila! The finished crate seats! A little pop of spring for my classroom! They make my heart pitter patter a little bit.

Here they are all stacked up and ready to take to school tomorrow! Another Classroom DIY project completed!

I hope you'll stop back by to check out my next blog post! I'll be sharing my new classroom seating arrangement! I've been working hard this week to get my classroom ready for our "Foray into Flexible Seating!" and am excited to share the process we went through, seating choices, and lots and lots of photos!

Another project I worked on and completed over my spring break is my seventh Word Problem of the Week set. If you aren't familiar with this resource, it is a set of word problems that supports the teaching, development, and use of the 8 Mathematical Practices while also supporting 4th grade CCSS.

The resource includes a PDF and PowerPoint slideshow of 5 real world word stories/situations that connect to special days or events during the month. Each story has 3 mathematical problems associated with it (each varying in difficulty and skill), as well as an opportunity for students to "Critique the Reasoning of Others".

There is much more to this resources so, if you are interested, please click on the product cover above to take a look at the complete product description, thumbnails, and preview!

If you are not yet following me on TpT, you are missing out on an opportunity to get my resources for 50% off! All new products are 50% off for the first 48 hours! You could also get access to follower-only-freebies in your TpT inbox when I send out special notes to my followers. Click to open my TpT store in a new window. Click on the green *Follow Me tab under my store name, Literacy Loves Company.

Thank you for stopping by! If you have an idea for another Classroom DIY project, one you've done or one you'd like to see done, please share it in the comment section! Also, if you have ideas for my readers on how to improve the seat crate construction, please feel free to share that also! I appreciate your comments and ideas!

Until next time,

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If you've been anywhere on the internet you know what a crate seat is... an ingenius combination of crate for storage and cushioned top for sitting. They are a perfectly clever addition to the classroom. Although I've always admired them, I never really had the need for these stools in my own classroom until recently.

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Birthday chart balloons - class birthdays - classroom decor - rainbow classroom - colorful classroom - kindergarten class - teacher gift

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Regalo de cumpleaños tabla globos cumpleaños salón

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Mason jars can get pricey. Scour summer garage sales to snag yours for a bargain, then label and fill it with everyday supplies.

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Once all the painting was finished, I found a design that I could print with my Silhouette Cameo. I've always loved this quote, so when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect.

The quote was in the Silhouette Studio Store. It's a digital download. You have to have a Silhouette and the software to access it, but I'm sure you could find something similar on etsy.

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Hey friends! I'm super-excited to link up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It! I have been having a blast this summer with the DIY projects for my new classroom, so I thought I'd share a few (plus a couple of oldies!)

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turn sideways for seating in library

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IKEA - KALLAX, Shelf unit, white, , Choose whether you want to place it vertically or horizontally to use it as a shelf or sideboard.

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KALLAX Shelf unit - high gloss white - IKEA

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IKEA - KALLAX, Shelf unit, high gloss white, , You can use the furniture as a room divider because it looks good from every angle.

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15 Flexible Seating Ideas - Playdough To Plato

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15 different flexible seating options in your class allows students to choose their seating enviroment and take control of their learning.

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to put pillows or balls

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BRANÄS Laundry basket with lining - IKEA

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IKEA - BRANÄS, Laundry basket with lining, , The plastic feet protect from moisture.Each basket is woven by hand and is therefore unique.

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table groups or centers

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IKEA - TOLSBY, Frame for 2 pictures, You can display one picture on each side as the frame has no back panel.You can easily change pictures by sliding up the front panel and inserting the picture.

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Use vinyl transfers to make semi-permanent decals for words you don't want to have to rewrite everyday.

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I spent last week teaching my students how to be a kindergartener and next week I will meet with all of their moms and dads to teach them how to be a kindergarten parent. There is just SO much information that I have to squeeze into a 25 minute presentation. Those poor moms and dads tend to walk away with their heads spinning, so I give them a convenient and colorful parent flip book to take home that will help them to reference the most important information from the evening. It's their go-to-guide for all things kindergarten.

I know your days are jam-packed right now, so I'll show you how I set up my parent flip book and share a free editable template with you. Settle in and get ready to have a great resource for your classroom parents.
Thank you to Astrobrights for sponsoring this post. I also included affiliate links in this post and I receive a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my links. However, all opinions stated are my own and I only promote brands and products that I love.
How to Create a Colorful Parent Flip Book

It's simple to prepare the materials for the parent flip book. You'll want to start by customizing the text on each page to suit your classroom needs and expectations. The template is set up for you to share 8 pages of information. I choose to highlight the following areas:

1. my contact information

2. calendar of important kindergarten dates

3. start and end times, as well as our specials schedule

4. my kindergarten class rules

5. birthday celebration guidelines

6. information about learning to read in kindergarten

7. reminder about the kindergarten dress code

8. my classroom homework policy

Once the content for each page is edited in the template, copy each page onto a different color of Astrobrights paper. The pages are formatted to be cut vertically in half so you only need to make half as many copies of each pages as you have student in the class.

Colored paper is fun, but it's even better when you can conserve resources and have more paper to use later on!

I used all of my favorite Astrobrights colors to create my parent flip books:

You can also find many of these colors in the and paper assortments on Amazon.

Once my copies were made, I trimmed the pages on my paper cutter using the cutting guide lines that are printed onto the pages. This creates a series of pages with varying heights for the flip book.

Once the pages are trimmed, it's time to assemble! Layer each page with the shortest on top and the longest on the bottom. I add a sheet of Astrobrights Eclipse Black cardstock that's been cut vertically in half to the back of the book for a little added durability.

Have you ever seen such a colorful display of information?

Once the pages for the parent flip book are arranged, the final step is to attach the pages into booklet form. I used my school's comb binding machine ( you can find a similar model here) to add a nice finish to my books. I also just discovered this sleek like coil binding machine that creates more permanent books on Amazon and I am completely intrigued.

Of course, if you don't have access to a binding machine, that is OK!
Just add a few staples to the top and it works just fine 🙂

Download a FREE Parent Flip Book Template

Now that you've seen how simple it is to create a colorful flip book for parent night, I'm going to make the process even easier for you. You can grab my flip book template for FREE! Just click the image below to get your free flip book template. It's completely editable so you can change the page title to suit your own classroom needs. I pre-filled the template with the text I include in my own classroom to give you a peek at some of my classroom expectations.

How to Download and Install the Font

NOTE: I used the font KG Why You Gotta Be So Mean for my page titles. You will need to download and install this font on your computer for the flip book to match mine. You can download the font for free on Teachers Pay Teachers.

If you've never installed a font on your computer before, I promise it's super-easy. I created a video that walks you through the process on a PC and another video that demonstrates how to install fonts on a Mac. Click to watch the video that suits your needs. I mention my Classroom Library Labels in each video, but the font and instructions are the same for the template.

Inspiration to Colorize Your Classroom

For more colorful ideas, check out what Differentiated Kindergarten, A Modern Teacher and First and Kinder Blue Skies have been up to. Click any image to read more.

I'm looking forward to a very COLORFUL year in Kindergarten!

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FREE Parent Flip Book Template Featuring Astrobrights Paper

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I spent last week teaching my students how to be a kindergartener and next week I will meet with all of their moms and dads to teach them how to be a kindergarten parent. There is just SO much information that I have to squeeze into a 25 minute presentation.

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IKEA - BILLY, Bookcase, black-brown, , Make use of the room&apos;s maximum surface area with corner shelving.This bookcase has a height extension unit, allowing you to make the most of the wall area.Adjustable shelves can be arranged according to your needs.Surface made from natural wood veneer.