Back To School Sale!

Welcome To The Sunshine State Blog Hop

Welcome to the Sunshine State! Enjoy yourself as you take a tour around our wonderful {and large!} state! Grab some freebies along the way, and be sure to enter to win our Bundles of Sunshine!

Hi Yall!

My name is Dana and I am a Florida Blogger. I am so delighted that you have stopped by my blog to get to know me. Grab a glass of sweet tea--the wine of the south, sit back relax and enjoy.



 I am a First Grade teacher, technology geek, blogger, wife and mother. I am one of those strange delightful individuals that gets giddy slightly happy when new teaching supplies come out. I love the smell of lamination and I stock explore the internet for great ideas. So sit back relax and let me tell you about my neck of the woods (sorry its a southern thing).



I live in the delightful little town of Wesley Chapel, Florida. I have lived in the area or around this area my entire life. Wesley Chapel is located in Central Florida. Its about 20 min outside of Tampa.  I love this area because I have all the comforts just minutes away from my home or in some cases just an hour away. I am about an hour from Walt Disney or the Beach!

This weekend, we have freebies for you to enjoy! Stop by each of our blogs for an activity or idea to use in your classroom. To grab my freebie just click the image below!

The Florida teachers below have two fantastic giveaways for you! You can enter once from each one of our pages. All you have to do is follow my blog! Hop around to all the blogs listed below, and be sure to follow them to get more entries. The more entries you have, the more likely you are to win! Each pack also includes a Starbucks gift card (because, well, a teacher's gotta have a coffee!).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Come find out more about the beautiful state of Florida by reading about these other sweet teachers!

Ummmmm.....

Okay I admit it. I am not as computer literate as I would like to be. It has been my goal this summer to redo my blog on my own. I am still determined to do it--it just might not happen this summer as I planned. Being by the pool and reading has won out over school related items this summer. Let's just face it sometimes you just need a break from all things school and well this summer was it for me. I have enjoyed not worrying about anything.

Fast forward to now--I have 3 weeks to go of my precious summer and I am determined to enjoy every last millisecond that I can. I have created a few items but not what I had planned. Today I decide that I am okay with it all. Last school year I allowed myself to get stressed out about the job way more then in years before. My mental health really took a beating. Well not any more. This year I have a new attitude to go along with my new grade level. I am going to just go with it.

So my plans for August:
To post one new product each week.
To make one blog post each week.
To not sweat the small stuff.
To NOT WORK ON THE WEEKENDS on anything school related.

I will let you know how it goes.

Monday Made It!

This week I am teaming up with 4th Grade Frolics for her Monday Made It. I have wanted to participate for the last couple of summers but just never found the time. This year however I chose not to teach camp or summer school and that opened up my schedule. So here it is.
I keep seeing this cute little apple containers on Pintrest. I love them and thought they would make cute gifts for my team during per-planning. So I made 7 of them.
I purchased the clay pots at Home Depot and painted them Candy Apple red. I then used air dry clay to make the steam and leaf. I hope my team enjoys them as much as I enjoyed making them.

 

Monday Made It

St. Leo Summer Technology Institute

Over the last week I have enjoyed attending a technology institute at Saint Leo University (which I graduated from--thank you very much). I have learned so much about the iPad and apps my head is ready to explode. The presenters were fabulous (all professors with St. Leo). Dr. Ryan was assigned to facilitate our group. She is a professor in the Gainesville branch of St. Leo. She was awesome. She always had words of encouragement or funny stories to share. If I lived closer to Gainesville I would take one of her classes.
Here is a picture of her explaining QR codes to us. I am so excited about this. I plan to start making them for my TPT units.

Dr. Ryan showing us how to use QR codes in the classroom. 

A QR code I made for my blog.

We also practiced with an app called Coach My Video or CMV. Here Marty (my husband) and Kate (our friend) practice throwing the paper airplane. We had to record at least 2 tries and then mark up the video to tell what was happening. 

We also meet some fabulous people from Apple. They came and told us the ins and outs of the iPad. I also learned about a new product that will not be released until later in the summer. Let me just tell you it is wonderful. I ordered mine before the presentation was over. Head over to my Facebook Page to find out how you can to.

We also have to conduct an action research project. I plan to do mine on digital storytelling. Make sure you check here often to see my progress. 

Here is my plan so far.

Action Research Project

That was my week in a nutshell. Check back next week to find out all the cool stuff I learn about math.

It's Summer Time!

WOW! So excited that summer time is finally here. This school year was difficult for me both professional and personally. I have had to reflect on my teaching and how I handle different situations. I am not proud to say that at times I fell short. I am not perfect and I am human. With that being said--I am as the kids would say "Letting It Go" moving on!

This coming school year I will be moving up to First Grade! I am excited about this move. I will loop with part of my class. This makes me happy because I will continue to see the growth they have made and will make. I had a great group of kids this year!

With that being said--I will be blog stalking browsing many first grade blogs.

On my bucket list this summer:
1. learn to create blog templates, buttons, etc.
2. Read up on how to implement more technology into my classroom.
3. Spend time with my friends.
4. Start my daughters t-shirt quilt
5. Make at least one new TPT product each week.
6. Participate in the Monday Made It Series.

Dino Week!

The first week of our Dino Unit was a success. I love that my kiddos were so engaged this week. Here are a few photos from the introduction to the unit.

The egg I "found" in my backyard was waiting when the kiddos

came back from specials. 

Making inferences from the glues we were given.

Our Egg Hatched