“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”
-Pablo Picasso
Welcome to Mrs. White's Class
Hello Everyone! Welcome to our class site. For those who don't know me, let me introduce myself. The 2026-2027 school year is my ninth year teaching at Florence Elementary School. I have taught STEAM, Title One, and kindergarten at Florence. For the past couple years I have also taught coding camps with Bitterroot Coding for Kids. Before working at Florence Elementary, I taught preschool for two years, as well as kindergarten for two years at Corvallis Primary. I earned my Bachelors in elementary education at the University of Montana in 2008.
While attending the university I worked for the Space Grant Consortium where I got to travel to different schools across Montana presenting space science from NASA to K-12 classrooms. Before I attended the university, I was in the Marine Corps as a Spanish Linguist for four years. I was fortunate to be able to travel to all sorts of places such as Mexico, England and Europe. I love learning about new places and I hope your kids do too.
I have lived in Montana most of my life. I grew up in Hamilton and Butte. My husband, Kenny, and I met in the Marine Corps and decided Montana was the place we wanted to call home so we moved back after our enlistments were up. We were married in 2007 and have 2 boys Reid and Greyson.
We also have two horses: Orion and Artemis, a dog named Riggs, and a cat we call Zorro because he is a crazy ninja fighting cat. We love hiking, horseback riding, and camping. I also love photography and READING! I spend many hours with my nose in a book.
Thanks for visiting, and I can't wait to meet all of you!
What's Happening
August 21st, 2026
Buckle up this is a long one! Just a bit of housekeeping and thoughts to start our year! First of all, I do not have my finalized student lists but as soon as I do, I will update Artsonia with all the new students and kindergarten students. For those new to our district, Artsonia is a digital platform where I upload your child's work. It can only be seen by people you send out the link to and myself. Though it does act like a fundraiser (last year it made the program about 500.00 extra! The last thing we purchased was some much needed student clay tools.) HOWEVER, DO NOT FEEL OBLIGATED TO BUY A SINGLE THING!! I do it for you all as a way to digitally keep your child's art. Remember the actual art will come home at the end of the year in a portfolio.
It was so amazing to see so many of you last night! Words cannot express how thankful I am to have families like you willing to donate supplies to our program! I know hot glue sticks, tape, and Mr. Sketch markers might seem excessive but I assure you there is a reason for my crazy requests! If you are wondering about things like "why would she need Mr. Sketch markers, Crayola works the same, she just wants the fun smell" rest assured that is not the case! I apologize in advance for any colored noses that I am sure are coming home. I just wanted you all to know I have tested out so many generic, name brand, and "artist" markers in the past two years and the Mr. Sketch, (by a long ways) win hands down for the juiciest, best markers to hold up to student coloring. While we work on understanding markers are not a "fast medium" like a crayon or colored pencil, and you have to go slower so the color is vibrant, it is a hard concept. Mr. Sketch are a lot more forgiving and way easier for students to get the art work to look the way they want without the dried up marker look.
These will be used mostly for our product art not our process art. Rest assured we use all our markers, and all supplies, to the fullest extent and when they are dried up I put them in water to extract every bit of color out of them and they become our liquid water colors. I know how expensive everything is with two teenage boys myself so I am truly blown away by your generosity. The creativity these kids get to have because of all of you is going to be amazing. I have so many new projects planned. I already feel like we are behind! Haha.
Aug 11th,2026
I hope everyone is ready as our summer is rapidly dwindling down! I am so excited to start my third year in STEAM. I have been taking new coding classes and scouring the internet for exciting new ideas for this year. Can't wait to see everyone soon.
Mrs. White as a 3rd Grader (Yes, I did pick out my own clothes and they are rockin')
