Test Hero!

I know many of you have state testing, end of the year testing approaching and so I wanted to share something that I have done with my students for a few years now.  We create Test Super Heroes!  Our super heroes help us remember those test taking skills that little friends need to learn in order to be successful.  The kiddos learn about different test taking skills: reading all directions carefully, having positive thoughts, skipping questions they aren't sure about and returning to them later, using all the new things they have learned throughout the year, and many more!  Once they have learned about these, each kiddo picks a skill/strategy that they create a superhero around.  They develop a name, an outfit, and a motto and then we make "real-size" super heroes to hang around the school and encourage everyone.  This is a fun project and it is worth the time to get the kiddos excited- the rest of the staff loves it too! I have already had co-workers stopping in and asking when the super heroes are arriving! :)

Here are some of my kiddos working on their heroes- we have Mind Check (activating her schema), Flag Man (flagging questions we aren't sure about and going back later) and Miss Multiplication (remembering those multiplication facts)!

I also wanted to share the graphic organizer and lessons that I use in case you want your kiddos to be  Test Heroes too!

Click here to download it for free!

It's Award Season

Wow! I am honored that Sam from A Teacher's Looking Glass passed along an award for new bloggers!

Thank you so much for the award and if you haven't checked out her site- you should!

I haven't had much to post lately-there is a flu bug going around my school and I had students running to the bathroom left and right!  I have been busy cleaning and sanitizing the classroom because I have some fun non-teaching things and the NAESP conference coming up and I don't want to be sick!

I am also embarrassed to say that we have not jumped on the St. Patrick's day theme in my classroom.  I am starting to feel the pressure of the state test looming over me (we take it May 1st and May 7th) and I haven't done as much as I would like to make sure the kiddos are ready for it.  Luckily, I still have time.  Even luckier, I have a great group of kiddos who I know have the skills they need to pass.  I mostly get worried about the emotional part of taking such a big test in third grade- it's a lot of pressure, stress,  and anxiety for my littles!  We read this book today and the kids thought it was a hoot!

If your library doesn't have a copy of it- you can find it here