Keeping Students Happy During Testing Times

This week is filled with testing for my kids.  We have two more pieces of assessment and then we are done...for a little bit any way.  We are also beginning test prep twice a week to get ready for state exams in April, so I want to try and give my students as many breaks as possible during the day to keep them happy.  Here are a few things I've been trying to incorporate:

1.) Brain Breaks - we are using Whole Brain Teaching in our classroom, so when the students win for the day, their reward is a quick brain break.  We've done "skiing," "swimming," "yoga" - anything to get them out of their seats and moving.  For skiing, students stand and then sink into a chair pose, elbows bent and fists at the shoulders.  Students jump from side to side, as though they are skiing downhill.  For yoga, we practice warrior II and warrior III.

Credit

2.) Food!  We are allowed to give out treats (are we the only ones left???) and a handful of Jolly Ranchers can be a real motivator when we have to break out the test prep booklets.  I also keep small bags of goldfish in the classroom for the same purpose.   If you are not allowed to give out food, try smelly stickers!  Even the big kids love smelly stickers.  My kids love when I mark their work with Mr. Sketch markers.  It's so funny to see them pick up their books to smell the marker!

3.) "Fun" Practice  - anything that involves coloring feels like less work.  I love Kristine Nannini's Math Centers because they all have color by number practice.  I also found this great page on TpT that they ASKED to take home for homework.  What???  Link: Multiplying Decimals Freebie.

4.) New "toys"  - I bought each of my kiddos a smencil colored pencil (because I didn't read closely and thought I was buying pencils.  D'oh!) to use in their test prep books.  These are ONLY for underlining evidence or for checking their work.  I also plan to make these little answer sticks.  What a great idea to improve student participation!

Credit - this is from One Extra Degree

One Extra Degree Pinterest Board for Test Prep Fun

Do you have great ideas for keeping kids happy during the march towards testing?  Please share!

And check out my FB page for a Facebook Freebie!  I have a complete center for fractions to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

Finished Early Work in Math {Mixed Review Test Prep Task Cards}

There is nothing I LOATHE more than wasted time.  I can't stand seeing notebooks close when students are finished with their work.  With most classes, I spend a few days at the beginning of the year reminding them of all the things they should be doing when they "finish" early and they are independent for the rest of the year.  This class is different.  It's April and I'm still reminding them that there is no such thing as "finished" in school.

After thinking on this over the Spring Break, I decided to make one subtle change to my math workshop.  Instead of keeping the task cards on the back table, I decided to move them to the table bins, along with the recording sheets.  Instead of having to get up and move across the classroom, now the cards would be right at their fingertips and they can work on a few cards while waiting to move on with the rest of the class!

My students worked on the cards in little spurts throughout math workshop.  Today we worked on algebraic thinking and when they finished their work, they took a few task cards to review the major content for fifth grade.

I just posted these Mixed Review Test Prep Task Cards on TpT.  The cards help students review operating with decimals, fractions, algebraic expressions and volume concepts.

There are 36 cards, but I am pretty certain that I am going to be adding to the set and updating them throughout the month.  Most of the cards are word problems with different skills embedded, so students have to practice the same skills they will have to apply on their State tests at the end of this month.  But these task cards are a little cuter and a little more fun than a page of test prep!

I'm going to share these cards with the first three people to comment, so tell me, what do you have your students work on when they finish early in math?   {Be sure to leave me your email!}

Tried It Tuesday!

I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday!

Since we are in the midst of test prep, I thought I'd sharing a testing strategy that I've been working on with my class: justification.  Everything about multiple choice work has been about justifying answer choices and reasons for eliminating other choices.  Although I am definitely NOT a fan of the testing mania, I want to empower my students with as many strategies as possible so that they can be successful.  They are old enough to know and understand how tests are constructed, so I want them to be able to use the same vocabulary {process of elimination, distractor, text evidence} we do when we discuss tests.

I feel like I'm constantly apologizing for my sloppiness, and today is no exception!  Please excuse my scribbles on the SMARTboard!

What you see above is Grade 5 Daily Common Core Reading Practice Weeks 1-5 by Literacy and Math Ideas on TpT.  This product has short reading passages and Common Core aligned multiple choice questions.  If you are looking for some quick practice (as in less than 15 minutes) you may want to check this out.  I use it between read aloud and word study.  You can see the justification that my students gave for each answer choice {first sentence, no proof, not mentioned}.

On this student's work, you can see lots of great thinking next to the answer choices {not in the 1800s, doesn't answer the question, not important, doesn't say Europe}.  Rather than racing through the practice, this student did a great job showing all of this thinking, making it easier for me to figure out why students make mistakes!

 This was not an overnight process!  The first time I used the word "justify" with my class, we were working on finding word meaning in context.  The justification wasn't great and a lot of times, it was really off the mark.  You might notice while trying to determine the meaning of "bauble" this student wrote "not a gift" and "not a present" as reasons why he crossed out those choices.  Those aren't great reasons, because the bauble was a gift.  In this case, I wanted to see great reasoning for why jewelry is the BEST choice. 

Over the past few weeks, their reasoning has improved.  From time to time, I'll come across some lame justifications, and I'll need to remind my kids that they shouldn't write the same thing for all three incorrect choices, but overall, I'm really pleased with the thoughts I read!


Tell me, what are you trying to get your students ready for their tests?