Information provided on this page for classroom use only; not publication.

thevirtualvine.com 2005

 

 

 

 

 

This is another joint venture by TA! 

Thanks everyone for sharing your ideas!

Decorations: Go to your local nail salon and ask for a donation of disposable flip flops that they use for pedicures.  These could be decorated by the students and used for bulletin boards and all kinds of activities including BANG!.

Shoes: You can "tie" this theme into a shoe theme.  Your theme could progress throughout the year: flip flops for summery weather, sneakers for fall, snow boots for winter, and rain boots for spring.

Bulletin Board Captions:

Shoe In To A Great Class!

Booting Up For Winter!

Boot-i-ful Spring Flowers! (this would be cute with rain boots filled with spring flowers)

Playing in the Sand-els!

Making Tracks for 1st Grade!

We Flipped and We Flopped and Here We Are!

We're Flipping and Flopping Into Kindergarten!

We're Flipping For Kindergarten!

Flop Into Kindergarten, Flip Over Learning!

You'll Flip Over Kindergarten!

We Flip For School, Because It's Never A Flop!

Flop Down With A Good Book And You'll Flip For Reading!

Bulletin Door: Instead of a bulletin board, decorate your door to welcome your students to the class.  Program each student's name on a flip flop and adhere it to the door.  You may also want to let them decorate them with stick on jewels, glitter, neon colored glue, etc. and then adhering them back to the door after they're dry. 

Oriental Trading: This is the place to go to find cool flip flop stuff!!  You can purchase necklaces to program with students' names, gummy candy, notebooks, inflatables, mini erasers, flip flop shaped playing cards, mini notepads, tableware, pencils, gift bags, inflatable flip flops, album, magnets and even a pinata! Don't forget to search under "thong sandal" as well.   http://www.orientaltrading.com

Dollar Tree: Visit Dollar Tree for flip flop shaped notepads!

Counting Sets: Program a number on one flip flop and the matching dots on the other one in the pair.  Students count the dots and match to the correct number.

Numbers & Number Words: same as above

Colors & Color Words: same as above

Capital & Lowercase Letters: same as above

Compound Words: same as above

Synonyms: same as above

Rhyming Words: same as above

Flip Flop: Create a Flip Flop game by creating cards shaped like flip flops and storing them in a shoe box.  Put sight words on some cards and FLIP on some and FLOP on some.  Make up a movement for FLIP and FLIP.  Students will blindly choose a flip flop from the shoe box and then read the word on the card.  If they get a card with FLIP or FLOP then they get to do the movement.

Movement suggestions:

Flip - flip (change) chairs, change the direction of the game from clockwise to counter clockwise

Flop - flop on the floor like a fish

Pointer: Purchase a flip flop key chain and remove the flip flop.  Use E6000 glue to adhere the flip flop to an appropriate size dowel rod.

Pointer: Check your local dollar stores for flip flop shaped fly swatters.  These can be used as pointers as well and are very sturdy.

Shape Book: Use a flip flop graphic to create a pattern for a shape book.  Use it to create an emergent reader or a class book on favorite color of flip flops, where they'd like to wear their flip flops, or whatever your mind can dream up.

The Case of the Missing Shoe (cute, cute!)

http://www.ghbooks.com/ACTIVITY/activity.cfm?bookid=16728&page=155

 

Books:

Creatures At My Feet

Alligator Shoes - Arthur Dorros

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes - Ann Morris

The Elves & the Shoemaker

Shoes From Grandpa

 

Class Book:  Have students wear a pair of flip flops to school.  Have extras.  Take a picture of each student's feet wearing their flip flops.  Use the pictures to create a class book using the Brown Bear format.  Ex.  Jenny, Jenny, what do you see?  I see John's flip flops looking at me!  John, John, what do you see?  I see Megan's flip flops looking at me!  At the end you could have a picture of everyone's flip flops with I see LOTS of flip flops, that's what I see!

 

Another Class Book:  Whose Feet Are These?  As in the book above, take pictures of each student wearing flip flops to create the book.  On each page write "Whose feet are these?"  at the top and then put the picture of the feet in the middle.  At the bottom of the page write "These are John's feet."  Create a small flap to go over the student's name in the sentence so that they can try to guess whose feet they are before reading the text.  OR, you could put a flap over the whole bottom sentence and have them guess the owner of the feet before reading the sentence.

 

Flip Flop Clipart

http://coloringbookfun.com/Summer/imagepages/image8.htm

 

Flip Flop Coloring Book Page

http://familycrafts.about.com/library/color/blcolorflipflop.htm

 

Pairs & Counting By Twos: Use pairs of flip flops or flip flop graphics to practice pairing and counting by twos.

 

Doll Shoes: Collect doll shoes (scour thrift shops, garage sales, your kids' toy box, and the dollar stores) for sorting and graphing.  Don't forget to ask for donations from the parents of your students!

 

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe: Incorporate the rhyme into the unit.  Kids love it!  I have a purchased chart that we use to track as we say it.  Then you can practice working on those number words!  If you put it in the pocketchart, they can match number cards to the words.

 

Drama Station: Set up a Shoe Store!  What a hoot!

 

Graphing: While the kids all have their flip flops there, graph them by color, size, or style (V straps or = straps).

 

Family Project: Copy a large flip flop pattern onto cardstock and send one home with each child.  Attach a note for the family to work together to decorate the flip flop and return it to school.  Make sure they know they'll be displayed somewhere for others to see. :)

 

Matching Prints: Collect lots of different kinds of shoes (come on, just look in your closet!!!) to create different sets of prints.  Using two pieces of cardstock, paint the bottom of the left shoe and stamp it onto the RIGHT edge of a piece of cardstock.  Using the right shoe, stamp it onto the LEFT edge of a piece of cardstock.  When the two pieces of cardstock are placed side-by-side, they should make a complete set of prints.  You can then decorate around the edges of the cards with shoe stickers or feet prints, then laminate.  Students will match the different shoe prints to make complete sets of prints.

 

Shoe Painting: Allow students to use old shoes to paint by stamping the shoes in paint and then onto their paper.  It should make some interesting pictures if you also use different coordinating colors of paint.

 

Flip Flop Addition:  This is a cute addition matching activity that I made using the flip flop graphics.  The students can use shells for counters if they need them.  Print the cards on cardstock, laminate and cut apart.  I even added a label for the activity. ;)

 

Flip Flop Addition printable

 

Flip Flop ABC Match: Print on colored cardstock or construction paper. Created by Barb.

 

Flip Flop ABC Match printable

 

Flip Flop Number Match: Count the sets and match to the correct number.  Created by Barb.

 

Flip Flop Number Match printable

the missing 1 & 2 flip flops :)

 

Resource: Go to Current Catalog online and type in "flip flops" in the search box.  You'll see 96 tiny little flip flop stickers for 99 cents!

http://www.currentcatalog.com

 

Flip Flop Patterning: Each student will need one pair of flip flops (don't know that this would work for boys).  They need LOTS of small strips of cloth in two or more colors (according to the complexity of the pattern) ripped into 1/2 to 3/4 wide strips.  Tie the strip around the strap of the flip flop and tie into a knot.  Create a pattern as you tie additional strips around the strap until the strap is covered. When finished, it resembles a fuzzy flip flop.  Cute done in bright or coordinating colors.

 

Flip Flop Day!: Declare one day flip flop day and encourage everyone to wear theirs and flip flop around!

 

Resource: Michael's has painted, wooden flip flop shapes!

 

Resource: Lakeshore has shoe erasers.  Great for sorting, patterning, graphing!

 

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/IWCatProductPage.

process?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=417&pcount=0&Product_

Id=74298&RememberSectionId=161&RememberCatalogId=4

 

Flip Flop Art Project: Have students trace around their shoe onto craft foam.  Cut them out and create straps using pipecleaners.  Decorate.

shared by Cindy

 

Resource:  SHAPES ETC has just sent me a new catalog and they have flip flop products!  They have large and mini notepads that would be cute matching activities.  They have matching Beach Nametags, Beach Stickers (that include flip flops), and Beach Designer Paper that would make great mats for different activities. 

 

Reader: Pennie created this reader to download.  Thanks for sharing, Pennie! :)

 

printable reader

 

Calendar Numbers:  Printable calendar numbers in an AB pattern to download.  Print on cardstock and laminate.  Print two sets and use one for number sequencing cards.  If you want these, get them now.  I don't know how long they'll be here!!!!  The files are large!

 

Calendar numbers

pg 1  2  3

 

Flip Flop Snack:  I had this idea for an edible flip flop yesterday! :)  For some reason I'm on a roll right now with edible snacks!  Anyway, my husband's favorite cookie is a Nutter Butter.  So I just got the idea ... that would make a cute flip flop snack! :)  Frost it with your favorite color of frosting (you could take a survey first and see what the favorite colors were of the class .. and of course provide the students with their own survey form to survey their peers and see if their results match yours) and then add straps with licorice pieces.  The girls could use frosting and a decorator tip or premade candy to add a flower to theirs if desired where the straps join.  Yum! :)

 

Flip Flop Book:  Jude submitted an idea that she saw in an Australian magazine for making a book out of a pair of flip flops.  They cut off the outside edge of each thong to create a straight edge and bound it with book binding tape.  They used unbound flip flops to create a page template and then glued the bound pages inside.  She also suggested using it to discuss symmetry as well.  Thanks, Jude, for sharing!


 

 

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7.11.05

last updated 3.2.09