Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten Unit!

Hey all! Check out Kinder Kraziness for a free Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten Unit!  She also has some great letter and sight word activities on her blog that you should check out!


Broken Bone Update! Saw the orthopedist and my elbow is broken but thankfully I didn't get put in a cast. I will have to wear a sling through July and into August and limit my use with my right arm. So much for getting in shape this summer!
-Lindsey

Segway tour and broken elbow

So I took mom to Annapolis yesterday for a 2-hour Segway tour for her birthday.



We loved it and theyre so easy to use until...





I hit a curb on our way back to the shop and I flew off and broke my elbow :-( yes Segway's are dummy proof but they're not Lindsey proof! Off to the orthopedist now.


- Lindsey

Looking for Summer School Words of Wisdom

I'm teaching summer school for the first time beginning on July 5th  for 4 weeks to rising 1st graders. I'm looking for words of wisdom from those of you who have taught it before. The kids arrive at school by 9am, get breakfast, have a reading lesson, guided reading groups, literacy centers, they have lunch and then math class. The kids go home by 1pm. Does anyone have words of wisdom or creative summer projects/themes for rising first graders?
Thanks!
Ms. Whyte

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of kindergarten and I was very excited to make it to the end of the year to start my summer but the reality of starting a new year also hit me in that I will have to train a new and much larger class of munchkins. Trying not to think about it....

I wanted to share a picture of my end of the year gift to my kids since there had been a lot of discussion in the blogging world this past month. I was feeling crafty so I found a deal on these cute bags at Michael's Craft Store and I painted the bags for my kids with one of these designs shown. Or until I ran out of blue paint for the wizard hats. :-D




The kids loved the bags and then yesterday I had the kids go around with sharpies and sign the back of everyone's bag. I then stuffed them with a summer cup, beach ball, and sunglasses and passed them out today on our last day!

Today we shaving creamed our tables and packed the room. I'm not moving classrooms this year which is a shocker since I've been in 7 classrooms over 9 years at the same school. I'm not quite sure how to pack up a room since I'm staying in the same place. Here is a pic of my little minions at work!








And then finally the moment we all had been waiting for... Seeing the buses off! See you in August kids!

My next stop will be 1st grade summer school but I have a 2 week vacation until then.....Until Summer School .... I'm going to go out and have some fun!!
-Lindsey

Word Wall Party!

 It's a Word Wall Party over at Ms. M's blog! So I'm a few days behind in blogging but thought I'd update with multiple years photos to help catch up. So the first picture is my current kindergarten word wall. Kindergarten words are on pink cards all with cut out Elkonin boxes and the 1st grade words we teach or use are in yellow. I use sentence strips to add all my students names to our Word Wall too. The words on my K word wall are large enough to read from a distance but they also have magnets on the back so when I teach the kids about how to use the word wall I teach them to go take it off the wall if they need it for writing. They love playing I Spy games on the word wall! Oh through the middle are my Beany Baby Reading strategy posters!

Next comes my second grade word walls and I'll explain the reasoning behind each.  The Word Wall withthe yellow tape (plastic gym tape) is from my first room in second grade where I taught for 2 years.  The word wall with the black tape (electrical tape) is from my return to the same room 3 years later. I had a period of 2 years out in the portables between. The word wall words I made on the computer and are on magnets so students can take them to their seats to write down. I originally only posted the 2nd grade word wall words.

Year number 5 and 6 in second grade had me move back into my original classroom which I was excited to do! The WW got a new outline in black and additional words. Now I will point out this picture looks very cluttered but it was actually quite organized. Yellow words were 2nd grade words, blue was 3rd grade words, green was science words. We are required to have a separate math word wall in our room but I did post some of our math words up on the wall in pink.

Last but not least comes my Word Wall that was my labor of love. For my first year out in the portable I had problems with my word wall. I had it high up on a wall as a Word Wall Caterpillar with the words stapled into the wall so kids could read it. problem #1 some kids wouldn't even try to look at words because they were up high and far away. #2 it was in a bad place in the room (the only place to with the space so I thought). So my second year in this portable came along and I tried to think outside the box (literally)! I had a great idea! I had purchased some cheap pocket charts from Target during their back to school sales. I cut up 3 pocket charts with 10 pockets in half and stapled them along the front wall below the dry erase board. Then I lined it with border to cover any rough edges I made. Yellow stars became my alphabet for each section. There's not rhyme or reason by the different colored words other then that's what my teammate printed for me.

Suddenly by putting my word wall in a pocket chart my two problems were solved, the kids could see the words, and they could access them and take them to their seat to write! I spent countless hours on this project putting it up and the teacher the next year in the portable loved it! I was so disappointed two years later when the room became a parent resource center and the parents who organized the room took the pockets down and threw them out!!!! the following year when teachers were back in the room they wanted the word wall and it was nowhere to be found! :-( The teacher next door tried to hot glue cork board below her dry erase board and then use thumb tacks to put her word wall words in but the problem was her kids couldn't put the words back in so she said it was more trouble than it was worth. I hope this helps give some ideas out there to different people. Please let me know if you have any questions or want to know more!

Lindsey

Please help get our class a carpet!

I've posted a project on Donors Choose to try and get my class a carpet with squares on it for the fall and I need your help to make it happen! My school is changing from a reduced class size school (1:17) to a 1:27 in kindergarten and 1:28 in 1st-2nd school. Needless to say this is a big change for my school and the leap in numbers in our classes present a number of problems from cutting staff, not enough furniture for the bigger classes to not having enough carpet space to fit all of our little ones. So here's where you come in! I hope to collect donations to purchase my classroom a new carpet which can seat 30 kids! I can't do it without your help! Please visit my Donors Choose site and help my kids have their own space to learn on a new class carpet! Thanks!!
Lindsey

Teaching Porfolio Complete!

So I've been missing from the blog world for the past month since I was hit with deadlines. I am the editor of the school memory book and got that finished right before spring break and then my teaching portfolio deadline came and went in May and it still wasn't done. So after weeks of photos, scanning documents, and lots of writing. I turned it in and met with my AP for my conference and I was thrilled that he wanted to share my portfolio with other teachers! Translation=I rock! So now I can set my sights on conquering the rest of the world! Hello Blogger I'm back! Click on the words if you want to see my portfolio.

Here are a few teaching updates:

This adorable baker was from our Author's Tea! 

Love my little elephants!

• I'm very excited that I was offered a summer school position teaching 1st grade at another school in the area (my school does not offer summer school)! So yay!! I will be employed for the month of July! To make the job even better one of the amazing kindergarten teachers from my school will be joining me this summer! Yay!

• If I didn't post it before I was also told by administration that they would like to keep me in kindergarten next year AND I don't have to move rooms! For those that have been counting with me, I've been teaching for 9 years, have taught 3 different grades, and have been in 7 different classrooms. I'm a pro at moving and room setup.

• We had a great 2 week unit on zoo animals and a great visit to the National Zoo! Here's a picture of a few of my little elephants!

• This past week we learned about dinosaurs which the kids loved!! This week were discussing Transportation and then we head into the home stretch and focus on the summer and the beach!

• Finally, we have 10 more days of school!!! Thank goodness!! So I'm beginning to wrap things up and start cleaning to put things away this summer. Just wanted to check in and let everyone know I'm alive and back online!

-Lindsey