Calendars for Number Writing UPDATE!

 

Hey there!  I posted my new calendars for the year last week and I wanted to reach out because the product is now offered in two ways.  There is a perpetual version where you will receive a new download each year for as long as I am teaching.  It is also offered as a single year download like in the past.  But, here is why I am reaching out: 

If you purchased this product last year, DO NOT PURCHASE AGAIN!!!  You own the perpetual version.  Lucky you!

I have seen some purchases happening and I think I labeled these products well enough for folks to make an informed choice about which one they want to purchase.  But there was a part of me worried that former CFNW customers might think that they still needed to purchase this every year.  So, just to be sure, I wanted to show you what to look for on the product so you can check to see whether you own it.  Go to the product and make sure you are signed in to TpT.  Here is the link: Calendars for Number Writing ~ Perpetual~

That is a picture of the product on my computer.  Because I created the product it says "EDIT" above the download it now button in red.  This is what that will look like if you own it.

That is a clipart product that I own.  So that is what you will see if you own the Calendars for Number Writing.  I hope this is a help and prevents anyone from buying this again.  If you do end up buying it again, please contact me in TpT Q&A or by email and I will give you something in my store worth $5.00 or less.  

While I am here, I just want to mention that I made an important improvement to the product.  I changed the font of the month and the year.  I think it is much better.  The other font was very cute, but not for little 5 year old sweeties we want to try to read it.  This is what the calendars look like this year:

Lastly, I just want to show you the calendars we did for June in the classroom at the end of the year because my kiddos did a super job on the artwork.  I just LOVE art made by young kiddos.  I am missing my students from last year.  I can tell it is time for summer to end...

Well, thanks for stopping by!

Happy teaching!

Fun Friday!

Oh my goodness, I had to join in for Fun Friday with the girls from Freebielicious.  I LOVE to have fun in the classroom.  And really... in kindergarten you have to make learning fun.  So it's a win - win.  Here are a just few fun things that we have done in my classroom:

This is one of my favorite fun things we did last spring.  We had a big unit on honeybees.  The kids each made an anatomically correct honey bee and then we used them for learning activities.  This is a photo of a few of my sweet kiddos pretending to be worker bees in the hive telling me what they are doing and what is in the cells.  Such a fun way to learn and assess.

 This is always a hit with the kids.  This is not a new idea.  I first saw it on Pinterest.  Here is a link to the blog with this idea:  Juggling with Kids.  So, I used my Sight Word Super Set to make one for my classroom.  It is well worth your time to make one of these.  I especially love to play this game right before I do sight word assessments.  Great review!

I love to do lots of arts and crafts related to learning because it is fun and it is a great way to give young children creative expression.  Melt art is just one of many fun art projects we do.  You can see the full post on it here: Melt Art Fun!

You can check out this blog post: Snow Much Fun! to see what we did with those snowballs for some winter fun in my California classroom (where it NEVER snows).  There is a link to a cute snowman list FREEBIE on that post.

We love to play games too!  Games are great for subitizing, counting, skill practice, social skills, and FUN!  This game is from my Sight Word Super Set .  I also did another post on games with a FREEBIE rhyming game.  You can go grab it by clicking on the link or the image of the game below.  It's black and white to save printer ink.

I LOVE GAMES!

 Go check out the other great blogs with fun ideas and freebies over at Freebielicious!  You can get there by clicking on the button below.

I hope you found some new ideas for having fun in your classroom.

Thanks for stopping by!

Throwback Thursday ~ Back to School Word Wall set up

Hi everyone!  I am linking up with the girls at Freebielicious again.  Today is throwback Thursday, so I am showing some ideas from two years ago.  I had needed to re-do my word wall for the new school year.  You can see the full post here: Word Wall.  It also includes my calendar set up from back then as well. 

This is what my classroom typically looks like when I am getting it set up.  There is always a huge mess everywhere and somehow magically it gets cleaned, organized, and ready for the first day.

I wish I had a before picture of the old word wall to show you.  But, honestly I would probably be too embarrassed to put it here on public display.  It was long over due for a re-model.

I must say I still love this little title poster on top.  It is holding up pretty well.  I will be going into my third year using this now.  I can't get into my classroom until about two weeks before school this year, so it is going to have to get me through one more year. 

These are the cards I used for the words.  They came from my Super Sight Words Set.  You can get that in TpT in my store.

This is what the word wall looks like when all the words are up.

OK, this is the best part.  Because my word wall is on a divider, it is at student height and the words are attached using Velcro.  So, it is interactive and when a student wants to look at the word up close, she can just take it off the wall, use it in writing, and then go put it back.  Even though I also have little word wall charts at the writing table, some students really prefer to go grab it off the wall.

 Hope this little idea is helpful to you.  If you are setting up your classroom right now, my heart goes out to you!  Best of luck!

Go check out the other great blogs on Freebielicious.  There are some great ideas and freebies to be had.  Just click on the button below to find them.

Thanks for stopping by.
Happy teaching!

Tell us About You Tuesday

Hi there Everybody!  My name is Katie Byrd and I am a teacher in California.  I am linking up with Freebielicious today to tell you a little bit about me.  I have been teaching for 17 years.  I have always taught young kids.  I currently teach a half day kindergarten and do reading intervention with firsties in the afternoon.  I LOVE my job!  

I live in a beautiful little spot on the central coast.  This is the beach that is a 20 minute walk from my house.  

I feel so grateful and blessed to live here!


This is my classroom.  I love my school!  It is a teeny tiny school and district all in one.  We have about 140 students and some classes are mixed grades.  Thankfully I have taught only kinder for the past few years.

My classroom is always a colorful.  It is a 20 minute drive from my house on small twisty mountain roads.  It is tucked in a little valley in the mountains.



This is our fur baby, Ginger.  Isn't she cute?  My husband has had guinea pigs as pets ever since he was a child and has no plan of stopping any time soon.  I love that about him.  He is a sweet and gentle soul.

Here is a picture of me with my husband and my best friend Deborah.  We are wearing orange because we were at a SF Giants game!  Woo hoo!

I love the Giants!  We watch baseball and cheer for our team all summer long.  This is a snow globe that I got at a game this year.  I went with some great moms from my school.  It was a blast!

So, that is a bit about me.  California girl.  Giants fan.  Happy kindergarten teacher after 17 years.  Go to Freebielicious to check out some more great blogs.  Just click on the button below to get there.

Thanks for stopping by!

Loco Logos and Adventures in Vegas!

I linked up with The Elementary Entourage for this special post about my trip to Vegas. 

I am feeling a bit crazy or LOCO!  I am telling my story today about how much I have to learn about branding and marketing.  I think that is part of why I love blogging and TpTing (yes that's a real word) so much.  It is a huge learning opportunity for me.  Along with the constant learning that being a kinder teacher provides, this little side venture of mine is always humbling and keeps showing me what I still need to learn.

OK, I will get to the point.  So, I went to Vegas for the Teachers Pay Teachers conference.  A couple months before the conference I started feeling worried, inferior, ashamed... insert self-defeating adjective here.  I was mostly feeling all those things about my blog design.  The blog was something I put together myself on the cheap and I had promised myself that when I could afford to have a professional blog designer do it for me that I would.  Well, I kinda forgot about that promise.  So, I looked into getting someone to do it, but there is a several month waiting list.  Oopsy!  Guess a new blog design wasn't in the cards for my July timeline.

So what do I do?  Well, one Sunday afternoon I thought it would be a good idea to at least change my logo.  That will help, yea...  The logo was another thing that I thought looked amateurish.  I did it myself a couple years ago because I didn't want my real photo out there, so I made this:

Yes, that is supposed to be me.

It became my logo just because it is the one image that links all my social media and other presence on the web.   I thought I needed something more cute and so I made this to replace my avatar.  I put it up on all my important web sites and had buttons and stickers made.  Thought I was going to make a splash in Vegas... NOT!

Well, I didn't realize how stupid that was until I got to Vegas.  Thankfully Teachers Pay Teachers made my conference badge well in advance of the event.  It still had the old avatar logo on it.

Guess what image everyone who did know me recognized?  Yup, the silly little avatar.  So, today I went back to all my websites and changed everything back to that old image.  I had already started some "brand" recognition and I didn't even know it!

I learned so much at the conference and met so many inspiring teachers!  I had a lot of big aha moments.  I also had a lot of validation that I am doing a few things right.  But, mostly I still have a lot to learn.  Ha ha!

But here is my biggest shift and it is a personal one:  I think the reason I put the little avatar up in the first place is because I didn't really want to put myself out there.  I was hiding a bit.  I was sharing my work from my classroom but I was afraid to share myself.

So this post is my first of hopefully many where I am putting it all out there and sharing my true colors.  And... I am on Instagram!  I am really putting myself out there.  Now that I am not hiding, I am finding it fun to share my adventures both as a teacher and as a person.

Because I was willing to put myself out there a bit more, I met some really great people.  I felt so lucky to meet the ladies from The Primary Pack!  They put on a great bloggers meet up on the last night of the conference with fun swag and give aways.  I thought they did a fantastic job.  They are so darn sweet!  You can check out their blog by clicking on the link above or on the photo below.

In the vein of putting it all out there, I just wanted to show you one last thing.  It's a picture of my hubby and me on the first day in Las Vegas.  It didn't make it on to Instagram, but it is kinda cute.  I love that man!  He's my BFF.

Thanks for stopping by Mrs. Byrd's Learning Tree.
Hope you are having a great summer!
Happy Learning!

Vegas Sale 2015!

Oh my goodness, I feel so grateful, excited, nervous, and happy that I am going to Las Vegas this year for the Teachers Pay Teachers conference!  Woo hoo!  To celebrate, I am having a sale.  You can get everything in my store at 20% off from July 8th through July 11th.

I still actually have to finish packing, so this one it short and sweet.  Hope you are all having an incredible summer.  Thank you so much for following me and supporting my work.

Happy Summer!