My Oldest and Closest Friend

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

So my picture is of my oldest and closest friend from growing up, Sara. We grew up living across the street from each other and were born 6 days apart. I’m older J We always joked that Sara got the brains and I got the brawns! In kindergarten Sara got to skip on up to 1^st grade so she got to hold that card J  We attended the same schools and lived across the street our whole lives, both of our parents still live in the same houses. We use to build snow forts in my front yard, play Risk for days, and walk each other back and forth across the street home (the whole 2 houses) until the sun went down. We even shared her bedroom when my parents put an addition on our house in 6^th grade. We went to camps as kids and swam on swim team together through high school. Even through college school we stayed close and always picked up where we left off. We still know how to push each other’s buttons but also how to pick each other up when we’re down. Now I’m living in Bethesda and Sara’s down the road about 4 miles.  She got me the great job coaching her swimming team. The picture above is from the Washington Post Hunt we did together in 2008. We had to search the paper for clues and then run around downtown DC to solve puzzles. Every kind of thinker was needed so we had a great team with our buddy Mike.  I love Sara  and so glad she’s always been there since I was 6 days old!

30 Day Challenge!

30 day blog challenge

Yay! I am excited to attempt my first blog challenge. Link up with Fierce, Fit and Fabulous and join in on the fun!

Here are the list of daily challenges:

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with ten facts

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show

Day 04 - A picture of your night

Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate

Day 12 - A picture of something you love

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without

Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die

Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you

Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity

Day 19 - A picture and a letter

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel

Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget

Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at

Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book

Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change

Day 25 - A picture of your day

Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you

Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member

Day 28 - A picture of something you're afraid of

Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile

 Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss

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Day 1- Picture of yourself with 10 facts.

At my friend Dottie Millwater's wedding this past summer! Check out Dottie's blog at http://dottiemillwater.blogspot.com/

1)   I’m a sucker for jellybeans! I know I’m starting my 30 day challenge in March but I’m worried since all the Easter candy is now out at the stores that I won’t be able to stop myself! Jolly Rancher and Starburst jellybeans are the best!

2)   I’ve taught 3 grades: 4^th, 2^nd, and Kindergarten.  9 years in total!

3)   I have a collection of over 60 rubber ducks J My students use them at school for sorting and counting activities… well that’s my excuse!

4)   When I can’t sleep at night I search the web for ideas for school. I’m sure if I read a book I’d get back to sleep quicker but it happens often enough that I love to read other peoples blogs and planning ahead! I’ve got teaching on the brain!

5)   I love sports! I play golf, kickball, dodgeball, skiing, snowboarding, In the past I swam through college (I can’t get in the pool anymore but do coach), and played a season of flag football and indoor volleyball.

6)   I’m a busy bee after school. I tutor 3 kids every Monday-Wednesday and then coach swim team Monday and Wednesday nights from 8-9:30pm. As you can imagine, I’m pretty tuckered out by the weekend!

7)   I’m allergic to cats, horses, trees, pollen, mold, cut grass, peaches, and lettuce.

8)   I don’t like to eat tomatoes or pickles.  It’s a seedy juicy problem.

9)   I like my eggs cooked over medium. Why I don’t know it’s just the way I’ve had them cooked since going to college.

10)  I am not a fan of activities in the great outdoors. I don’t camp/fish/or other participate in other nature type activities.  I don’t have a green thumb. The whole concept of sleeping outside in a tent with bugs, noises, and creatures freaks me out. I don’t consider the sports I play as nature activities.

Days of the Week

I almost forgot to post the Days of the Week signs I made. I wanted to share just because they were cute! So I have them in a pocket chart (one of the dollar deals ones from Target) hanging in my math area. The kids love practicing the days of the week and mixing them up and putting them back in order!

Please download and enjoy!

Time Clip It Center now on PTP Free!

I'm so excited to share that after many years of creating and sharing activities online for free I have posted my first activities to TPT. As a reader, I know this might not be something you are excited about so don't worry I'll still post free resources but I'm excited to finally get something back for my time and energy to make activities for my munchkins!
So I posted the Clip It Time Center activity which is also located here on my blog. I hope that those of you who downloaded it here would be willing to give me positive feed back on TPT!
I really do enjoy making centers and activities that can be used by others! That's why I created the Kindergarten Teachers' Lounge on Ning as a support group for K teachers around the world. It's been a great network to get to know teachers and supply resources to others. I still update my website periodically but I think since Blogging has now become so easy to post and I don't have to worry about FTP (yea I know a web designer term for uploading). 
Oh yes a quick update, so I'm healthy again, back at school, the snow in DC which knocks out my power and internet seems to have ended so my postings I hope will become more regular. If not feel free to harass me and remind me to update (I'm sometimes forgetful)! TTFN!




- Lindsey

My Kindergarten Classroom

I'm often asked about what my classroom looks like and well every year it's been different because I've been in 7 classrooms and taught 3 grades in my 9 years teaching! Enjoy the photo gallery of my current kindergarten room and if you have any questions about anything please let me know. There are photos from my past 8 years in 4th grade, 2nd grade, and K available on my website.  Hopefully I'm in this room to say and I won't be moving rooms any time soon! Enjoy the show!

Our carpet and morning meeting area.

The view from the door, one of our center areas against the easel

Reading table at the beginning of the year. You don't want to see photos of the mess now :-)
Our word wall is full and the blue pocket chart is for our phonovisual alphabet.

Book Club baskets and materials for groups

My Word Wall Area updated in March, yep it's a mess.
Across the middle I have the beany baby reading strategy posters.
On the right side I have my Phonovisual Phonics Chart.

The front of our room

Looking across our tables at the room.

Some of my technology tools! I had 5 Leap Frog Tags and 2 Tag Juniors donated
by Leticia at Tech Savvy Mama. I also have 3 Leap Frog Learning Systems
that I purchased at yard sales that my kids love!

Our hooks area down one of my walls

Class library and what will become our Math Vocab board and our Class Goals board.

 

Math Zones on top, manipulatives below

Math Zones - After my math students finish their independent work
they have a choice of either 4-5 zones. to work at. The kids move their
green book to the zone they want to work at so I can quickly spot
check to see what kids are working on. FYI At my school we refer
to math as Zones and literacy as center

Math Zones and manipulatives

Free Choice Centers

Can Do choice activities and puzzles

This is our literacy center chart. The kids have either 4 or 5 Centers in a rotation. They go to one center area each day to complete a "Must do" activity and then
have choices of different "Can Do" activities

This is the "Glue" center area. On the right side I have the Must Do/Can Do
Poster that shows the kids where to go when they finished their Must Do
activity each day.

 

I hope you enjoyed the quick tour! If you have any additional questions please leave me message or email me! Thanks for stopping by!

Teaching Time

So it's been a few days since my last posting, Sorry!!
This week my kids explored how to tell time to the hour and half-hour. The kids did great with Judy clocks and I'm always looking for math zones to keep them practicing independently. So after reading blogs at some point I stumbled upon the "clip and check" activities. My class loves these! So what they do is the kids use clothes pins to clip on the answer they believe is correct and then they flip the cards over and check to see if they match the sticker on the back with their clip.

I'm sharing the Clip and Check Time activity I made with hopes that it will help some of you out there and if you have others please send them my way!

Clip and Check Time Document

View Google Document
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Meet The Teacher...LINKY PARTY!!!

If you want to link up visit Cara at the First Grade Parade 

First off, here’s a little bit about me…
 

So I'm new to blogging although I've read them for years, for the past 5 years I have kept a class webpage for my class and for teachers as a resource but my school district said this year that it wasn't allowing us to use outside sites so as a new years resolution I began blogging. I hope to have more teacherly postings as I get going. 

 

I have taught at Woodlin Elementary for 9 years. I started off by teaching fourth grade for one year, then moved to second grade for 6 years, and I am now teaching my second year in kindergarten. I grew up in Montgomery County where I currently teach. I attended the University of Richmond for my undergraduate career and participated on the Women's Varsity Swimming Team for 3 years and Women's Varsity Golf Team during my senior year. I graduated from the University of Richmond in 2002 with a BA in Elementary Education and Studio Art.

I just graduated from John's Hopkins University with a Masters degree in Information Technology for Educators in the Spring of 2010. I'm very proud to be the first member of my family to achieve a Masters degree. I studied technology in education and explored the significant impact technology plays in improving a child's learning. I use technology everyday in my classroom and I'm always searching for new ideas with very little provided by the county.

For many years, I coached a number of summer swimming teams  but I took a break while I was in graduate school and I'm now excited to get back into the pool!  I just began coaching again but this time for an adult masters team. During the winter, I am a Professional Ski Instructor and teach skiing and snowboarding to teenagers on the weekends. I also am a very active kickballer, playing in 2 leagues; I also play dodgeball and golf.  As you can tell I'm a very busy person outside of school oh, and don't forget tutoring. In my spare time (there isn't much of it) , I like to catch up on tv, scrapbook, exercise, go out with friends, and dine out. 

My brother Kyle's graduation June 2010

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I have a wonderful and supportive family; both my mother and father still live in the DC metro area and my brother, Kyle, graduated from SUNY-Maritime College in New York and spends much of his year sailing on cargo ships around the world. One of my greatest joys is teaching reading and instilling the love of reading in my students children. It is my hope that every child leaves my classroom with an amazing excitement for reading.

Now for the Q & A

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?                                             

A:  I would be an artist. I would love to have the time to commit to my artwork without having to worry about finances. I still have dreams about going into PR for a company but well I think that ship sailed when I didn't get a business degree in undergrad. I admit I didn't plan on becoming a teacher. I ended up in my first teaching class after losing a bet my freshman year and one of my teammates chose a class for me for the spring semester. I was hooked from then on!

Q: What are your hobbies?                                                                                    

A:  I love taking photos! I need to upgrade to a real photography camera soon. Can playing sports be a hobby?                                                             

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?                     

A: So I found my "report card book" my family kept with all my report cards and other strange things on it recently and that was one of the questions every year I had to answer. For a long time I had artist, business lady, athlete down...

   

Q: What are your guilty pleasures?                                                              

 A: Tosh.O, Jersey Shore, Chuck, V, LOST, Harblo gummy bears and frogs, and root beer floats!

Q: What is your biggest fear?!                                                                   

 A: Being single forever

Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go?                               

 A: A hot exotic island with nothing to do but bake on the beach

                                                         

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?                                                   

A: Be true to yourself, know who you are and what you believe in and never change that

Q: What do you value most in others?                                                                   

A: Their honesty and trust in me. I do appreciate it when my friends call me out because 99% of the time I had no idea that I may have said something off and it just didn't come out the right way. I will bend over backwards to help a friend and I hope they would do the same for me.

Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be?

A: Creativity! My name might be Miss Whyte but my students will be the first to tell you I never leave anything white! There is so much color in the world just waiting for us to embrace!

Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?

A: My grandmother. she passed away when I was 16 and even as the oldest grandchild I feel like I barely knew her. In the past 15 years since my Poppop moved up to DC and until his passing last year I learned the most amazing things about my grandmother. She dined with Presidents, she was more than just the average housewife, she was a liaison for "Old Washington" and I would love to sit down and have lunch with her now that as an adult I have listened, learned, and finally appreciated all that she did.

Now tell us one random thing about yourself:
 During February of my first year I almost walked away from teaching entirely. The year from hell which I have never met anyone who can equal my story. After my class valentine's day party where 4th graders ripped up valentines from each other I literally went home and said my prayers and asked for a sign, any sign, that I should keep teaching and not walk away. I needed a break. God then dropped 3 feet of snow on DC and we were out of school for a week.  That spring an opportunity opened up to move to 2nd grade and I took it, a second chance at teaching. I fell in love with teaching again and I could never see my life another way.