Every bone in my body wants to stick my head in the sand and pretend that I don’t have to worry about state testing this year. I don’t want to think about it. At all. I would much rather completely ignore testing, but I wouldn’t be doing anyone any favors.

If I wait until testing season to start thinking about testing, I’ve waited too late. Instead, regardless of my opinions on high-stakes testing, the time to start preparing is now.

We all know that the absolute BEST test prep is high quality instruction. It doesn’t matter what amazing test prep strategy, game, data collection method, or anything else we have….if we don’t provide sound instruction all year long, our students will not be prepared.

Test prep isn’t (or shouldn’t be) about “drill and kill” or “teaching to the test”. Instead, it’s providing our students with small amounts of intentional review to help new content reach students’ long term memory.

Brain research shows that when students are able to review and practice material over long periods of time, they are more likely able to store and receive that information and content from their long-term memory. This is why it’s so important to add spiral review into your instruction. I wrote a blog post on teaching for long-term memory, and it’s one of my favorites! You can find it here.

I used to incorporate spiral review with my morning work, homework, and classwork, but it became too much. I would either use too many minutes of my instructional time going over each of the spiral reviews, or I would skip the most important part of the review-feedback. Fortunately, I finally found a method that works for me.

I switched my morning work to a number sense activity, which you can read about here. Students’ homework is digital and provides instant feedback on each problem. In class, once a week students complete a multiple choice spiral review. I like to start incorporating this review at the beginning of the year to give myself time to actually reteach content as needed.

I created different versions that all increase with difficulty and range of questions as the year progresses.  You can see the math third grade version here and the math fourth grade version here. You can find the third grade language arts here.

I also made a Kahoot version of the assessments above. My students go crazy for it. They BEG to do a Kahoot review all of the time. The engagement is through the roof. There are links to the Kahoot version in the PDF version of the reviews.

I also consistently use my Math Check-Ups, which are my favorite formative assessment. I don’t know that the check-ups fit into the “test prep” category, but regardless of what category that fall into, they are incredibly valuable. I use the check-ups in place of math exit slips. Rather than giving the assessment at the end of class, I give it at the beginning. This allows me to see who retained the content from the previous day’s lesson. I’ve found that this is much more effective and measuring students’ understanding, because it gives them time to forget. These assessments are very short and should never take students more than 5-10 minutes to complete.

I use the data from the reviews (paper or Kahoot) for my small groups. I never have set in stone small groups, because they need to be flexible and fluid. Once again, there is no right or wrong way to organize groups or record data. You can see below how incredibly chaotic mine looks, but it works!

What is important is that you give students feedback and additional instruction as needed. Practice without guidance and feedback is almost counterproductive, especially if students are practicing a procedure or strategy incorrectly. If we practice something the wrong way over and over again, we permanently engrave the wrong action into our habitual responses. It is important for us to ensure students practice correctly.

While it may not seem like a lot of test prep, starting early in the school year prevents the need to spend large amounts of time on test prep in the spring. Do you have any other strategies that you love?

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Do your students act as if the moment testing is over they are finished with school? While an early summer break may sound nice, it’s definitely a slippery slope, as it’s so important to keep students engaged after testing. I’ve learned that if I abandon classroom routines or deviate too far from our norms, I’m setting myself up for an incredibly challenging last few weeks of school.

However, I also recognize that students have worked hard all year. I know that, like me, they’re tired and need some excitement during the day. I’ve found that it’s best to stick to our routines, while sprinkling in a little extra fun into my instruction. One of my favorite ways to keep students engaged after testing is to take them outdoors, so I’d like to share a couple of my favorite outdoor math activities in this post.

Outdoor Math Scavenger Hunt

Every year, in-person or virtual, students LOVE my Outdoor Math Scavenger Hunt. In the scavenger hunt, there are nine different math activities that require just a few extra materials and not a lot of extra prep.

I created a basket for each of the activities. On each basked, I attached a label with detailed directions. Inside each basket, I placed any supplies or materials that would be needed for the activity. Then, I placed the baskets in random locations around the playground so students could spread out, but where I could also supervise all students at the same time.

I’m still using the same baskets years after I first made them. Disclaimer: I made my daughter pose for the pictures in this post…she’s 12 now-she was so tiny back then! That also shows just how long I’ve been using these activities!

Station 1

In one station, students use a ruler to draw a shape with a given area and perimeter. Students really have to think, because the obvious dimensions for area won’t create the perimeter needed for the figure. This is great area and perimeter activity, as well as using a ruler practice!

Station 2

In another activity, students measure the height of all the playground equipment. To give my fourth graders an extra challenge, they have to determine how tall the equipment would be if it was all stacked on top of each other. If I was still teaching third grade, I would not have students add the measurements together, because I’m afraid that would be a bit confusing. Instead, I would simply have them list the measurements.

Station 3

In the third activity, students have a partner time them as they jump rope for one minute. Students use that information to find how many times they could jump rope in a day, a week, month, or even year. For the sake of simplicity, I let students assume they would keep the same rate of jumps per minute. Students eventually work with some pretty big numbers, so you may want to add a calculator to the basket or possibly have them estimate to the nearest ten, so they were multiplying by multiples of ten.

Station 4

The forth part of the scavenger hunt has students use rulers, tape, and sticks to create their own yardstick. In this activity, I’m careful to have a designated place for students to place their yardsticks, so they’re not running around with sticks in their hands, or worse-swords.

Station 5

I got the idea for this activity from Because of Mr. Terupt. In the book, Mr. Terupt had his students try to count the blades of grass on the soccer field. Obviously, that’s not realistic, but students began to problem solve and think of estimation strategies to estimate the blades of grass. We don’t have a soccer field, so I generically said field. You can use any open area of grass for this station. The goal is for students to strategize and problem solve. Ideally, students will count the blades of grass in one square inch or maybe even one square foot. Then, students can measure the field and then use multiplication to estimate. If I was teaching third grade, I’d have students estimated to the greatest place, rather than using exact numbers.

Station 6

In this station, students measure the distance around the entire perimeter of the playground. This can certainly be another estimation station, but if you look around in the hidden corners of storage closets, you can almost always find one of these.

It’s a walking measurement wheel, and students think they’re the coolest thing ever. I found some at relatively inexpensive prices here. But, I would definitely see if you can find some first, and you definitely don’t need one for the activity.

Station 7

Another activity I’ve differentiated for third and fourth grade is the measurement of angles activity. In the fourth grade version, students use a protractor to measure five different angles. In the third grade version, students locate five angles and label them as acute, obtuse, or right angles.

Station 8

Students use tape measures to measure the circumference, hence age, of trees on the playground. If you don’t have trees, have students measure the circumference of five cylindrical items. As an extension, students could use the age of the tree to determine the year the trees may have been planted.

Station 9

I do have to make sure students don’t camp out at this station. In this activity, students create a paper airplane. Then, they throw the airplane and record the total distance it flew (in any direction) ten times. After they record the information, students create a line plot that represents that information.

Sidewalk Chalk Math

I created these activities for distance learning, but if you have plenty of hard surfaces to write on with chalk, this can be done at school too. You could do one activity a day, separate the tasks into outdoor math centers can have students complete a few a day for the course of a week, or you could have one big math day and complete this all at one time. You have a ton of options!

Multiplication

• Multiplication as a Comparison-Students find an object and measure its length. You can also provide that first object. Students use chalk to draw the length of that object. Then, using multiplicative reasoning, they draw a line that is five times longer than the original line.
• Multiples-Students draw a number line through 100-keeping the increments as equal as possible. You can draw the number line prior to this lesson and have students reuse the same number line. Students toss an object on the number line that number is the magic number. The student hops all the way to 100 on the number line. The trick is that they can ONLY land on multiples of the magic number. It’s fun for students to play this game with a partner, and if/when a student lands on a number that isn’t a multiple of the magic number s/he is out. Students can later use the same number line for the addition and subtraction game.
• Multiplication Facts

Patterns

I rarely feel like I give shape patterns enough time, so this is a great way to squeeze in a little extra review.

Rounding

This is another activity you could prep in advance by drawing the bulls-eyes before beginning the lesson. That way students will only play the game, rather than draw the bulls-eyes.

Fractions

• Equivalent Fractions-Students draw a circle and shade in one-half of the circle. Then, they draw three more same-size circles and show three fractions that are equivalent to one-half. Students repeat the process with a rectangle and a square.
• Decomposing Fractions-Students raw an ice-cream cone and write a fraction on the cone. Then, they draw scoops of ice cream on top of the cone and label each scoop to show various ways to decompose the fraction. For example, if they write ¾ on a cone, they may have three scoops of ¼.
• Number Line Fractions-This one may take awhile, but I think it is such a fun activity!

Geometry

When I used this digitally, I assigned this with Google Slides and left space for students to insert a picture of what they created. That worked out really well!

There are other activities for decimals, angles, and measurement! You absolutely do not need to do them all. Pick what works for your students. You can find this resource in my Freebie Library! If you haven’t already joined, you can sign-up in the box on the top-right of this page.

Math Treasure Hunt

I’ve created a treasure map for my students with directions such as: walk 15 feet forward, turn 45 degrees to the right, walk 3 yards forward, etc. I have a long series of directions for students to follow, and  at the end of the map students should be standing where the treasure is “buried”. The group of students who finish closest to the correct final location will receive the treasure. I plan to stagger start times for the activity by 5-7 minutes. I anticipate quite a few mistakes, so I’m not worried about students copying other student’s paths. If students feel that they’ve made a mistake, they will be welcome to try it again. It’s important that everyone begins at the exact same starting place, facing the correct direction. It’s also important to make sure students understand what it means to turn 90 degrees to the right or left. This isn’t one I can share with you, because all of the directions will depend on the space  you have to work with.

Hopefully these activities will help you out with your end of the year lesson plans! I know they have me excited for math!

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I never imagined I’d worry about test prep for 3rd graders or test prep for 4th graders. Every year I start the school year with good intentions. I’m going to use best practices all year, and I’d not going to stress about test prep and scores. We’ll work hard all year and let the scores take care of themselves. I do pretty good before Christmas.

Sometime around the middle of February, I begin to feel my neck muscles tighten on a daily basis. As we start to review, a somewhat panicked feeling begins to creep up on me. I start worrying about the worst case scenario and fall right back into the trap of over stressing about the test.

Not stressing the test is MUCH easier said than done. But, there are things we can do to prepare our students for their high stakes tests that will reduce stress and help raise those scores. In this post, I’ve shared three things to avoid and my tip top favorite test prep strategies and resources.

Let’s start with my disclaimer statement. I fully believe that the absolute BEST test prep for 3rd graders and the BEST test prep for 4th graders (and any grade) is high quality instruction all year. There is no computer program or workbook series that can replace good teaching. BUT, I also recognize that there is a time and a place for test prep.

Test Prep Mistake 1-Unnecessary Stress

The first thing to avoid is placing unreasonable pressure or stress on students. Of course we want them to do well and to try their best. But if I make it a bigger deal that it should be, I’m only going to hinder my students’ performance. I try to take the opposite direction and act SO overconfident. Yes, I fake it. I pretend that I’m worried that they’ll do so well that other people may think they had the answer key, or something silly like that. It’s easy to project our stress or frustration over the entire testing situation onto students but it’s something that MUST be avoided. There is absolutely no benefit to anxious students.

Test Prep Mistake 2-Over Practice

The second thing we don’t want to do for test prep 3rd grade and test prep for 4th grade is teach in a way that is solely about the test. If the BULK of instruction is based around test prep questions, then we have to ask what we’re teaching for. You bet I want high test scores, but that’s not the end game. We can’t let PRACTICE or PREP become our core instruction. Endless amounts of test prep packs or computer games won’t teach a concept for authentic understanding.

Test Prep Mistake 3-No Remediation

The third thing to avoid is test prep without feedback or reteaching. I could give my students four gazillion practice problems, but if I don’t work with the students who are missing the problems, that practice is pointless.

In fact, it may be harmful, because students may develop an inaccurate procedural memory for that skill or concept. As we discover areas of concern, we have to determine was it the style of question that tricked students, was it something that needs to be retaught, or something that needs to be taught in a different context. If we keep practicing without addressing the needs shown through the practice we’re not providing the needed support.

Test Prep for 3rd Graders & Test Prep for 4th Grader

I never want to stress students over testing. I also don’t want to bore students. Have you ever watched eyes completely glaze over when passing out a review sheet? That’s not productive. We have to keep test prep exciting, which isn’t always easy. In the remainder of this post I’ll share how I use assessments, centers,

Using Centers as Test Prep for 3rd Graders & Test Prep for 4th Graders

Centers are a great way to prepare students for their state test, and they don’t have to be boring. You can incorporate a variety of centers all year and use them in a way that fits with your instruction. I don’t always have time for centers, so I’ve had to modify them to meet my needs. You can read more about my center organization here. As students begin to develop a case of “spring fever”, it’s important to keep activities novel and engaging for students.

I like to have students review a huge variety of skills with the spring centers, and I use this time to meet with small groups on skills that need extra work. I don’t utilize centers in my reading instruction, but I do incorporate them a few times a week in math. You can see my third grade Spring Math Centers here and my fourth grade Spring Math Centers here.

Assessments

Students are easily tricked by wrong answers in multiple choice questions and often try to choose the first answer that could possibly work, rather than the best answer. I typically feel confident about my students’ basic math skills and conceptual understanding of math concepts, but I’m usually not confident with their multiple choice testing skills and strategies.

To give students experience with this I made a multiple choice version of my math assessments. I use these assessments along with my short answer assessments. This is a great way for me to authentically integrate test prep into my assessments. Of course, this isn’t the only format of assessment I use, because I differentiate my assessments with a combination of traditional assessments, performance tasks, and projects. You can find the third grade version of the assessments here or the fourth grade version of the assessments here.

After I give an assessment, I group students according to what they need to work on. I always have a handful of students that just need to slow down and think about their answers, so I’ll meet with them for a few minutes. I may have another group who did well but got confused on one or two questions, so I’ll meet with those students to discuss the wording of the question and how and why they were confused, which usually doesn’t take too long. I’ll remediate as needed with students who truly did not understand a particular concept.

Test Prep Vocabulary

Many students struggle on test items, because they didn’t understand the directions. It is often the directional vocabulary of a question that students don’t understand, rather than the actual content. Because of this, I place an emphasis on directional vocabulary. Students complete a graphic organizer for each essential testing term. For language arts, students read a brief passage and use the passage to answer a question uses that particular test prep term.

For math testing vocabulary, there is a math problem to solve that incorporates the testing word. I tried to use math problems that would also be appropriate for 3rd-5th grades. There is both a language arts practice and math practice for each of the words that overlap. You can find the Vocabulary Booklet here.

Test Prep for 3rd & 4th Grade – Spiral Review

When I changed my spiral review from an open ended format to a multiple choice format, it was bad.  I couldn’t believe how much my students’ scores dropped from one week to another. The content was exactly the same. The only difference was the format of the test. With a little experimentation, I realized that it wasn’t the content that gave my students trouble. Instead, it was because my students had no idea how to take a multiple choice test. I’ve since incorporated a multiple choice spiral review that I use once a week. I start this at the beginning of the year, because short doses of test prep is far more beneficial that cramming the weeks before testing.

I created different versions that all increase with difficulty and range of questions as the year progresses. You can see the third grade version here and the fourth grade version here.

Test Prep for 3rd Graders & Test Prep for 4th Graders Morning Work

Morning work can also be considered a form of test prep. Over the years, I’ve used MANY different formats and strategies. Every year presents new challenges, so you have to use what works for your students and your routines. Below are a few of the resources I’ve successfully use for morning work.

Weekly Word Problems

One assignment I love for morning work are these Weekly Word Problems. Students independently complete three word problems everyday, they write their own word problem on Friday.

Number of the Day

Another great activity is the Number of the Day, which I love because of the repetition of skills practice for third and fourth grade standards. This is perfect for morning work or homework, and kids love it! There are six versions so you can differentiate as needed.

ELA Morning Work

Test Prep for 3rd Graders & Test Prep for 4th Graders Constructed Response

I heavily reinforce constructed response problems throughout the year, because they are a great way to get students to think deeply about math concepts. I originally hated constructed response problems, but they’ve now become a natural part of my instruction. You can read more about how I teach constructed response problems here.

I use either my 3rd grade or 4th grade constructed response pack for extra practice. They have tons of tools for teaching students how to solve extended constructed response math problems. This pack includes posters, bookmarks, graphic organizers, and 30 constructed response questions. I organized the questions into six different categories, so you can build upon your students’ progress and gradually increase the level of difficulty of the problems.

Test Prep for 3rd Graders & Test Prep for 4th Graders Digital Games

Kahoot

Kahoot is a classic. It may not seem like a big deal, but let me say from experience, kids go crazy for it. They BEG to do a Kahoot review all of the time. The engagement is through the roof. You can adapt the games to play in teams, ghost mode, or even homeroom against homeroom. It’s easy to keep it creative and novel for students.

Plus, it’s SO easy to use Kahoot data for small groups. The reports give SO MUCH good information. The question above gave my class a lot of trouble. I was able to identify who missed the question and work with them in a small group. That immediate feedback is incredibly helpful.

Quizlet

Quizlet is another game that my students love!  It’s all computer based, and we complete it on our Chromebooks. Groups are given questions based on the vocabulary words and definitions. By the end of the game, students will work through all of the vocabulary words. The fun twist to the game is that the terms are divided equally among the students in the group. For example, if I have 24 terms Student A will have 6 of the terms, Student B will have 6 different terms, and so on. Students have to work together to not only determine what is the correct answer but who has the correct answer.

Gimkit

Gimkit can be used in any classroom to review concepts. The live gameplay is fast-paced and engaging. You search for kits (question sets) created by other users and modify them for your own use. Teachers can also use the assignments feature to give homework. In a homework assignment, students work through the kit at their own pace, answering questions until they reach a set goal. This is an amazing resource for test prep for 3rd graders and test prep for 4th graders.

Blooket

Blooket is another review site that helps increase classroom engagement. Blooket is a gamified learning platform where teachers host games through question sets and students answer on their own devices. This new take on reviewing or practicing material can increase student engagement and excitement.

Don’t forget to download your test prep posters here!

The post Test Prep for 3rd Graders & Test Prep for 4th Graders appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

I love using these spring math centers for 4th grade! If you teach third grade, you can see my 3rd Grade Spring Math Centers here. These activities should take me through all of March and April. In April we’ll be out a week for spring break (yippee!!) and I won’t have centers during testing week. You can find all the activities in this post here.

Spring Logic Puzzles

The first activity, Spring Logic Puzzles, happens to be my favorite activity in the pack. I love it, because it’s fun AND because it is quite challenging for my students. It requires students to have a bit of productive struggle, which is important for students. It also requires the application of math process standards. My students LOVED the Christmas version, so I’m sure they’ll love these too!

Spring Word Problems

The next activity is my Spring Word Problems. In this activity, there are 24 addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division word problem task cards. I’ve also included a few multi-step word problems. I tried to include a variety of word problems that required students to analyze what the problem is asking.

Spring Math Centers – Bright Equations

In the Bright Equations activity, students work with multiplication and division equations, with an emphasis on multiplying and dividing by multiples of 10, 100, and 1,000. They will find the missing number in multiplication problems where the first and second factor are missing. They will solve division problems where the dividend and divisor are missing.

Tweeting for Geometry

In the Tweeting for Geometry spring math center, there are 28 geometry task cards that will allow students to practice identifying, drawing, and problem solving with geometric figures. Students will also work with parallel and perpendicular lines.

It’s Raining Fractions

There is a huge collection of activities in the It’s Raining Fractions task cards. Students will compare fractions with unlike numerators and denominators. There are some comparison problems with models for extra scaffolding. Students will also identify and generate equivalent fractions with and without models. There are also problems were students multiply a fraction by a whole number and add and subtract fractions with common denominators.

Spring Math Centers – Graphing

Spring Graphing is another one of my favorite spring math activities. There are six graphs for students to interpret in this activity. For each graph, there are four task cards where students will answer questions from the graph. There are vertical and horizontal bar graphs, picture graphs, and line plots to the nearest one-fourth inch. The graphs include numbers that require students to multiply and divide larger numbers for additional computation practice.

Soaring Through Perimeter and Area

In this spring math activity, students find the area and perimeter by counting square units/units and by applying the formulas of finding area and perimeter. They will also find the length of missing sides and solve perimeter and area word problems.

Make a Splash With Measurement

In Make a Splash With Measurement, there are a variety of standards reviewed. There are four elapsed time questions, four measurement conversions task cards, eight measurement conversions with a table task cards, eight measurement conversion word problem task cards, and eight measuring angles task cards.

Spring Symmetry

In this spring math activity, students complete the remaining half of a spring picture. I like to have students highlight the line of symmetry. My students LOVED the Christmas version of this too! It was so hard for them when they first started, but after a little practice they improved so much!

Spring Math Centers – Garden Mystery

The final activity, Garden Mystery, reviews the decimal standards. This is written to reflect the popular game of CLUE where students use clues and the process of elimination to solve a spring mystery. I’ve found that I have to require students to show all of the answers for each problem BEFORE stating the solution of the mystery. This slows them down a little, because they like to rush through this to solve the mystery as quickly as possible!

You can find more ways to incorporate seasonal activities into your instruction in this blog post.

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Who has ever experienced this scenario? You spend weeks conceptually teaching fractions. You incorporate hands-on activities, multiple models and visual representations. Your students complete a variety of problem solving tasks in authentic situations. You also have students writing about fractions in their math journals. Then a few weeks after your fraction unit you have a student ask, “What’s a denominator?” Head meets wall. I imagine we’ve all been there in one way or another. We’ve spent time thoroughly teaching a concept, but once we leave that concept, students begin forgetting what they have learned. This is why consistent spiral review is so important for students. If you’re like me and need to see the research behind the practice, I highly recommend the book Why Don’t Students Like School by Daniel Willingham. The book shares how students’ minds work and how to review to promote concepts being stored in students’ long term memories.

Spiral review is when skills that have been previously introduced and taught are reviewed throughout the school year. Spiral review provides students with a chance to strengthen areas they might not have completely mastered early in the school year. It significantly reduces the amount of class time needed for test prep. When students are able to review and practice material over long periods of time, they are more likely able to store and receive that information and content from their long-term memory. This is why I like to add a mix of spiral review into my daily instruction. It keeps challenging skills and concepts fresh in students’ minds and prevents them from forgetting content taught early in the year.

I don’t recommend teaching or introducing concepts through spiral instruction, because students need time to master concepts. There is no way I would expect my fourth graders to grasp fractions in just a week or two of fraction instruction. There is a great deal of research, including the Institute of Educational science, showing that spiraled review has been shown to positively impact student learning. However, spiraled instruction has not been shown to improve student outcomes.

Since most students typically don’t have long attention spans, I try to keep my spiral review short and to the point. I don’t like to spend excessive amounts of time on spiral review, because I need everyone focused for those lessons-not to mention I don’t have any extra time to spare!

When I do assign a spiral review, it’s essential for me to discuss and correct the review with my class. This is when my students get valuable feedback, and it allows me to assess student learning. When I studied brain research for my Ed.S.,  the one thing that stuck with me more than anything is that practice does not make perfect. Instead, practice makes permanent. Practice without guidance and feedback is almost counterproductive, especially if students are practicing a procedure or strategy incorrectly. If we practice something the wrong way over and over again, we permanently engrave the wrong action into our habitual responses. It is important for us to not only provide opportunities for students to practice, but to practice correctly.

Below are a few ways I incorporate spiral review into my classroom. Hopefully, you’ll be able to get a few ideas and find new ways to incorporate spiral review into your daily instruction!

I always make a point to incorporate at least one or two review centers in language arts and math. We’ll play a game that reviews a previously taught concept, and add a set of spiral review task cards to my math and language arts centers. I created a set of task cards for each month of the school year. Each month has a similar look but different color scheme, so these task cards can really be used at any time of the year. August begins with a review of second grade standards, and then shifts to the more basic third grade standards. They progressively increase in scope and difficulty as the year progresses. All previously reviewed skills are included in each set of task cards.: August-second grade review (all standards), September-nouns (common/proper, singular/plural, abstract) capitalization, October-verbs (regular, irregular, tenses),  November-pronouns, possessives & commas in addresses, December-subordinating and coordinating conjunctions & simple, compound, and complex sentences, January-adjectives & comparative and superlative adjectives, February-adverbs, March-punctuating dialogue, April and May-all standards

These are all sold as individual months, as well as in money saving bundles!

3rd Grade Math

3rd Grade Language Arts

4th Grade Math

I don’t send home much homework, and what homework I do send home is a spiral review. I have two different options that I chose from, but I don’t try to use both formats, because I don’t want to overwhelm my students with an abundance of homework. Instead, I chose whichever version I think my students will benefit from the most. I don’t like to assign homework on something my students just learned in class, because many students will need reteaching. Instead, I use homework to have my students practice skills they have already learned.

The picture below shows my Third Grade Math Review, but I also have Fourth Grade Math Review. These worksheets are perfect for homework since they review essential math skills in a very basic format. There is a sequence of 33 math worksheets that cover multiple skills. The review worksheets begin with a second grade review and become progressively more challenging as the year progresses. By the end of the school year, students will solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems, as well as area, perimeter, and fraction problems.

This picture shows my Third Grade Spiral Language Review. This reviews the third grade Common Core Standards language skills through a spiral review worksheet. There is one worksheet for each week of the school year for a total of 36 worksheets. The skills reviewed include: Nouns (identify, possessive, plural), Verbs (identify, tense, subject & verb agreement), Adjectives (identify), Adverbs (identify), Pronouns, Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling, Synonyms, and Antonyms.

I also made a 4th grade version of the spiral language review. The skills reviewed include: Relative Pronouns, Relative Adverbs, Progressive Verbs, Modal Auxiliaries, Adjectives (ordering adjectives and identifying adjectives), Prepositional Phrases, Punctuation, Capitalization, Combining Sentences, Spelling, and Homophones.

This is the second option of homework that I select from. This is my Third Grade Language Arts Practice. There are three parts to this product. The first part gives students a brief skill review of basic third grade skills. The second portion contains three vocabulary based questions. These questions include homophones, prefixes, suffixes, and idioms. The third portion is centered around preparing students for extended constructed response problems. These are all problems that require critical thinking and the application of reading comprehension strategies. These constructed response questions can be used with almost any text written on a third grade level (or higher). There are questions for informational and fiction passages.

This is the math version of the second option Third Grade Math Practice and Constructed Response. There are three parts to this product. The first part gives students a brief skill review of basic third grade skills. The second portion contains three one-step word problems. All of the word problems are a mixture of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The third portion is centered around preparing students for extended constructed response problems. These are all multi-step problems that require critical thinking and the application of math concepts.

I have not yet made a fourth grade version of the second option of homework, but it’s certainly a possibility!

Morning Work

I also have Third Grade Language Arts Morning Work that is organized by the days of the week. This is a great way to reinforce and review all of those tricky grammar and vocabulary skills. There are 36 weeks worth of questions, and each week is broken into Monday-Friday sections to keep the review short and sweet.

This is my Fourth Grade Language Arts Morning Work, which is set up in a similar format to geared toward fourth grade standards.

One thing that was a real eye opener for me was when I changed my weekly math assessment from an open ended format to a multiple choice format. I couldn’t believe how much my students’ scores dropped from one week to another. With a little experimentation, I realized that it wasn’t the content that gave my students trouble. Instead, it was because my students had no idea how to take a multiple choice test. I created a series of spiral review assessments written in a multiple choice format. I like to begin using these assessments at the beginning of the year and continue using the same style of assessments all year long, so I created six different versions that all increase with difficulty and range of questions as the year progresses. There is a total of 30 multiple choice math assessments that are a spiral review of almost all of the math Common Core Standards. I give this assessment in lieu of my regular morning work on Fridays. My students complete the assessment independently during their morning work time. We discuss each question, and students keep track of what they’ve missed.

My favorite part of the entire activity is when I complete a line plot that shows how many students missed each question. I cannot tell you how much I’ve learned from our line plots. I has also surprised me that my students love seeing the line plots too. Each week, they try to collectively beat our line plot from the week before, and we always discussed which problem was the most frequently missed and why it was difficult.

Third Grade Math Test Prep

Fourth Grade Math Test Prep

Third Grade Language Arts Test Prep

Number of the Day

Utilizing a number of the day is a fun way to review key math concepts on a daily basis. I now have six different versions of my original Number of the Day, because we all have students with various needs and various challenges to our curriculum. The first version is primarily for third grade. In this version students write the number in expanded form and written form, and they round it to the nearest ten and hundred. They also complete a place value table and determine what is 100 and 1,000 more and less than the Number of the Day. Students compare numbers, complete an addition and subtraction fact family, and model a fraction using the Number of the Day.

The second version is also for third grade. It’s very similar to the original version, but in this version students create arrays, solve multiplication with repeated addition, and use the distributive property to multiply.

I created the third version for my students who weren’t quite ready for the third grade versions of the Number of the Day. This includes similar problems, but students work with 3-digit numbers, rather than 4-digit numbers. The fourth grade version contains 6-digit numbers, and students write the numbers in expanded form, expanded notation, and written form. They also round the number to the nearest ten, hundred, and thousand. To review those tricky factors and multiples, students writ e the multiples of the last digit of the Number of the Day through 100. They also look at the last two digits of the Number of the Day and list the factors of that number and circle the prime numbers and highlight the composite numbers. Students determine what is ten times, one hundred times, and one thousand times greater than the last number made by the last three digits of the number of the day. There is a divisibility table, and students circle any number the Number of the Day is divisible by. There is also an addition and subtraction problem, as well as a multiplication and division problems students solve with partial product/partial quotient and an area model.

Fraction of the Day

I’ve also created a Fraction of the Day. I do not use this review until I have completed my fraction instruction, because I don’t want it to take the place of conceptual instruction and hands-on lessons. I’ve created three different versions in the Fraction of the Day file, because I wanted to provide flexibility for different state standards. In the third grade version, students write the Fraction of the Day in written form and determine how many more parts are needed to make a whole. Students represent the fraction with an area model and number line. They also write two fractions with similar numerators that are greater than the Fraction of the Day, two fractions with similar denominators that are greater than the Fraction of the Day, two fractions with similar numerators that are less than the Fraction of the Day, and two fractions with similar denominators that are less than the Fraction of the Day. Students also decompose the fraction into unit fractions and write two equivalent fractions.

Fourth Grade

In the fourth grade version, students use repeated addition to show how to multiply the Fraction of the Day by a given whole number. They also identify the next three multiples of the Fraction of the Day and list the next three multiples. Students add and subtract the Fraction of the Day from a given fraction and identify the missing number in a multiplication equation where a whole number, multiplied by the missing fraction, equals a given fraction. Students write one fraction with a different numerator that is greater than the Fraction of the Day, one fraction with a different denominator that is greater than the Fraction of the Day, one fraction with a different numerator that is less than the Fraction of the Day, and one fraction with a different denominator that is less than the Fraction of the Day. Then, students decompose the fraction into unit fractions and write two equivalent fractions.-Students may use any strategy to generate two equivalent fractions to the Fraction of the Day.

Fifth Grade

In the fifth grade version, students convert the Fraction of the Day to a mixed number and model the Fraction of the Day. They add and subtract the Fraction of the Day from a given fraction with an unlike denominator and solve a fraction multiplied by a fraction problem. Students write one fraction with a different numerator that is greater than the Fraction of the Day, one fraction with a different denominator that is greater than the Fraction of the Day, one fraction with a different numerator that is less than the Fraction of the Day, and one fraction with a different denominator that is less than the Fraction of the Day. Students divide the unit fraction of the Fraction of the Day by a given whole number and divide a given whole number by the unit fraction of the Fraction of the Day. Finally, students write two equivalent fractions.

While that is certainly a lot of spiral review, when its broken into morning work, homework, and centers it’s manageable for students, and it prevents that end of the year stress in prepping your students for their high stakes test!

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My teaching partner recently introduced me to my new favorite vocabulary review resources-Quizlet. I know that Quizlet has been around for several years. In fact, I remembered using Quizlet several years ago. According to the site, I made a quiz back in 2010, but I never used the website, because I didn’t see anything more than digital flashcards…..things have changed:)

You will need to sign-up for an account. I use the free version, and I made sure to select I was using it as a teacher, because that gives me more options than the traditional version. I did not set up a class, so I’m not sure what that features there are for a class. To create a review, select “create” at the top of the page.

Type in the name of the review and select a language for the questions and answers. Then, enter the terms you want students to study. You can type in the definition of your choice, or you can select the button shown by the purple array. That gives a drop down menu of definitions you can choose. It is incredibly fast and easy to set up the vocabulary terms. I always try to have at least 12 terms, so we can play games with the words.

You can add new cards by selecting “Add Card” and you click “Create” to create the game/activity.

There are several things your students can do with the vocabulary words. All of the options are shown on the icons below. You can also share, add collaborators, and more.

You can assign the Quizlet on through a link, email, or even Google Classroom by selecting the Share icon (curved arrow). It honestly took me less than five minutes to create and assign this Quizlet. Before we played my students’ favorite game, I let them use any tool of their choice to review the vocabulary words. The student below was working on a vocabulary sort, where he sorted words and definitions.

This student played Gravity, which is another fun review where students have to avoid astroids.

Without a doubt, everyone’s favorite game is Quizlet Live. To play the game, everyone should be on their computer and select Quizlet Live from the menu of activities.  I display my computer screen on our projector, and when I click Quizlet Live a join code is automatically generated. Students enter the join code on their computer (you must have at least six students to play) and wait to see who is in their group. Once everyone has entered the code, click Create Game with X Students.

Students are randomly generated into equal groups. There are typically four students in a group. The groups are given funny names or animal names. I have students sit with their groups for the game. Our class goal is for everyone to be with their group and ready in less than 10 seconds. Groups are given questions based on the vocabulary words and definitions. By the end of the game, students will work through all of the vocabulary words. The fun twist to the game is that the terms are divided equally among the students in the group. For example, if I have 24 terms Student A will have 6 of the terms, Student B will have 6 different terms, and so on. Students have to work together to not only determine what is the correct answer but who has the correct answer.

Groups get 1 point for each question they get correct, and they have to go back to zero with any incorrect answer. I display their progress on the projector.  When a team gets all of the questions right, the winning team is displayed. You can click “Play Again” and keep the same groups or shuffle the groups. I usually play at least three rounds at a time, because it is amazing to see the progress students can make after a few practice rounds.

You can look at class statistics and see which word gave students the most trouble and what they confused the word with. The level of student engagement with this game is through the roof. To be honest, I had to work to settle my students down when we were finished. I don’t use this to introduce vocabulary, but I LOVE it for review. I am able to listen to my students’ conversations as they work, and I can’t help but smile when I hear excitement and learning at the same time.

I have no idea what is included in the paid version, so I’d love to hear your opinion about that or new ways that you use Quizlet.

The post Student Approved Review Game appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Now that it’s what I not so affectionately refer to as “testing season” directional vocabulary is more important than ever. I do want to throw out a disclaimer and say that I do not believe good test prep is, or should be, the same thing as “drill and kill” and/or “teaching to the test”. Those things often get lumped together, when it’s actually completely different things.

The best and most authentic test prep is quality instruction that begins on Day 1. It doesn’t matter what amazing test prep strategy, game, data, or anything else I use….if I don’t provide sound instruction all year, my students will not be prepared. Good instruction and authentic understanding allows students to apply and transfer their knowledge and skills to new problems. There is obviously a plethora of ways to provide this instruction, which is part of what makes teaching fun! I use a combination of instructional strategies and adapting my lessons to the needs of each class, as well as teach directional vocabulary.

When working on my Ed.S. in Brain Research, one thing that stuck with me is that practice does not make perfect. Instead, practice makes permanent. Practice without guidance and feedback can be counterproductive if students are practicing a procedure or strategy incorrectly. If we practice something the wrong way over and over again, we permanently engrave the wrong action into our habitual responses.

It is important for us to not only provide opportunities for students to practice, but to practice correctly. When students are able to review and practice material over long periods of time, they are more likely able to store and receive that information and content from their long-term memory.

This is why I like to add a mix of spiral review into my daily instruction. It keeps challenging skills and concepts fresh in students’ minds and prevents them from forgetting content taught early in the year. I incorporate spiral review with my morning work and homework, and I feel that it’s been very beneficial for my students. You can read more about my morning work here.

Directional Vocabulary – Test Prep Vocabulary

One strategy for effective test prep is to teach directional vocabulary. Our students often struggle on test items, because they don’t understand the directions or the question. It is often the directional vocabulary of the test that the students miss, rather than the academic content.

I now give explicit instruction on these directional vocabulary words. I developed vocabulary lists with essential terms for success on high stakes tests. I’ve included 15 language arts terms and 16 math terms on the list. For each of the words, I created a vocabulary booklet. In the booklet, students will complete a Frayer Model graphic organizer for each word. For the language arts words, students read a brief reading passage and then use the passage to answer a question use that particular vocabulary word.

For the math directional vocabulary words, there is a math problem to solve that incorporates the vocabulary word. I tried to use math problems that would also be appropriate for 3rd-5th grades. There is a language arts practice and math practice for each of the words that overlap.

Next year, I want to focus on this earlier in the year, and I plan to add the directional vocabulary words to my Word of the Week bulletin board. I made word wall cards that would match my Prefix and Suffix of the Week, as well as my Homophone of the Week.

Test Prep Treats

Many of us have very strong feelings about testing and test prep, but it’s important to watch what we say about testing in front of our students. I don’t want my students to approach testing with dread, nervousness, or fear. I do want them to take the test seriously, but I don’t want them losing sleep over it either. I talk about testing with extreme confidence and try to make my students feel that they are absolutely the most prepared students in the whole country, especially with the directional vocabulary lessons. I work hard to hide my own anxiety that typically shows up right around testing week (even though I promise myself that I won’t sweat it).

It sounds a little crazy, but I do try to make testing days fun. I might throw in a little art project that we normally wouldn’t do in an effort to prevent my students from becoming completely drained, because testing wears them down quickly. In addition, I like to give my students small snacks that aren’t too terribly sugary or complicated.

I made little testing cards to attach to the snacks, just to offer cheesy words of encouragement. You can download the tags here. I made a few of the cards specifically for my current group of students. I have an extremely competitive group this year, and every day at recess they either play a version of dodgeball or kickball. They play with as much fierceness as I would expect to see at a national championship game-every single day. When the game gets tight they say they’re going into “beast mode” and they really go all out. I have no idea if that’s actually a thing-but to my students it sure is! I couldn’t help but add that phrase to my testing sayings:)

Hopefully, these directional vocabulary ideas and testing treats will help you out this year!

The post Directional Vocabulary for Upper Elementary appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

It seems like during the weeks leading up to testing all I can think about is preparing for our state test.  Then after testing, my lesson plans are wide open. For the most part, I’ve taught all of my essential standards, but I certainly don’t want the learning to stop after testing.  Each year as soon as testing is over, I find myself scrambling around trying to find something purposeful for those last six weeks of school.  I want to reteach and enrich at the same time.  I want the work to be challenging, but I want my students to remain engaged as they begin to think of summer vacation.  And to be perfectly honest, I don’t want to do anything that requires a significant amount of preparation.  I think I’ve about worn my laminator out this year, so the less prep work the better!

I’ve had an idea twirling around in my head for awhile and finally managed to organize it in my mind so that I could create the exact resource I was looking for.  It took me forever to make, so I’m thrilled to have it ready, because this product gives me five weeks of math instruction! I’ve divided my math standards into domains: numbers and operations in base ten, algebraic thinking, fractions, measurement, and geometry.  For each domain, I’ve created a culminating performance task that is rigorous and requires a significant amount of critical thinking.  The Cafeteria Calculations, shown below, is an example of a culminating task.

I love this type of task, but I almost always have students who finish way earlier than others on these performance assessments.  I don’t want my students bored, and I definitely don’t want to give them busy work, so I added another component to the packet.  For my early finishers, I’ve also included a choice board for each domain.  Each of the choice board activities includes nine games and fun printables.

In the algebraic thinking culminating task, students solve a variety of multi-step multiplication and division problem. Each of the questions, require students to apply what they’ve learned through problem solving. The choice board activity includes Multiplication Sudoku and Division Sudoku. There are several games and other fun activities such as a Mystery Number.

I love the games in the Numbers and Operations of Base Ten. In the Race to 1,000 game, students turn a deck of cards face down in a stack. Students draw two cards at a time and create a two-digit number. Students should add that number to zero. Students should take turns drawing cards. On the second round, students add the new number they drew to their current total. The first player to reach 1,000 wins.

I love the Measurement sense choice board activity, because choosing the best unit of measurement is always a challenge for my students. I’ve written four paragraphs, and students have to circle the units of measurement that don’t make sense and replace the unit with a better, more logical, choice.

There is a lot of good stuff in this unit, and I wanted to keep everything as organized as possible, because I wanted to utilize everything. I bought a three ring binder for each domain-of course I had to color code them.  I could have just reused the same binder, but I wanted to keep everything in tact, so I could share with my teammates.

I added a page divider for each choice board activity.  Yes, I did just write the titles on the tab.  There are few things that frustrate me more than trying to print on those tabs correctly.  I jam my printer every single time. I’ll take all the advice I can get!

Then I printed copies of each of the activities and placed them inside the pocket of the page divider.  This is where I will keep all of my copies, and my students will select one activity at a time from the pockets.

By the time I finished adding everything to the notebooks, the 1-inch binder was full.  I don’t think I needed anything larger, but I wouldn’t recommend anything smaller either.

There are nine activities on each of the five choice boards, which means there is a total of 50 math activities ready to go!  There is almost no preparation required for any of the activities.  You can simply print and you’re ready!  If you don’t like choice boards, that’s find too, because all of the activities can be done as a stand alone activity.  You can check it out {here}, and be sure to grab the FREEBIES at the end of the preview!

Speaking of testing…..don’t forget to download your test prep posters here!

The post Life After Testing appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

I’ve known people who believe that teachers should not do any test prep whatsoever, and I’ve heard of others who more or less stop teaching to prepare for state tests. Neither extreme is helpful to students. You have to find a good balance of preparation and to avoid either extreme.

The absolute BEST test prep for 3rd graders is high quality instruction all year long. While I do not teach for the purpose of testing, I recognize the need for review. Stopping instruction and cramming huge amounts of test prep is not helpful for students. Instead, early in the year I begin adding short doses of test prep into my instruction.

Assessments

Students are easily tricked by wrong answers in multiple choice questions and often try to choose the first answer that could possibly work, rather than the best answer. I typically feel confident about my students’ basic math skills and conceptual understanding of the math concepts I’ve taught, but I’m usually not confident with their multiple choice testing skills and strategies.

To give students experience with this I made a multiple choice version of my math assessments. I really like the original version of the assessments, but I feel that my students would benefit from practice in a multiple choice format. When I created the questions and answer choices, I focused on common error patterns.

I use these assessments along with my short answer assessments. This is a great way for me to authentically integrate test prep into my assessments. Of course, this isn’t the only format of assessment I use, because I differentiate my assessments with a combination of traditional assessments, performance tasks, and projects.

You can find the third grade version of the assessments here or the fourth grade version of the assessments here.

Consistent spiral review is another essential component of test prep. Regular practice allows students to more easily store challenging skills and concepts in their long term memory, and it makes retrieval of those topics easier for students. One of my favorite quotes is, “practice makes permanent”. As much as I believe in the importance of spiral review, it’s hard to balance the need for spiral review with the need to continue moving forward with instruction. I typically incorporate my spiral review into my students’ morning work, homework, and centers.

Morning Work

I’ve written several different blog posts about my morning work, so I’m just going to give a brief overview. To learn more, you can start here. One assignment in our morning work folders are Weekly Word Problems. Students independently complete three word problems everyday, they write their own word problem on Friday.

Another activity is the Number of the Day, which I also love because of the repetition of skills practice for third and fourth grade standards. This is perfect for morning work or homework, and kids love it! There are six versions so you can differentiate as needed.

Classwork

I change things up a bit on Fridays. Rather than having my students complete their typical morning work, they complete what we call “Super Testers”, which is another form of spiral review. I particularly love this review, because it’s presented in a multiple choice format. The questions and incorrect answer choices were all deliberately added in specific ways to ensure my students would be prepared for their high stakes test. My students complete the assessment independently, and we grade them together in class. Each student has a pen the she/he uses to grade their assessment. We discuss each question, and students keep track of what they’ve missed.

Another one of my favorite strategies for spiral review classwork is through Math Check-Ups. I use this in place of math exit slips. Rather than giving the assessment at the end of class, I give it at the beginning. This allows me to see who retained the content from the previous day’s lesson. I’ve found that this is much more effective and measuring students’ understanding, because it gives them time to forget. These assessments are very short and should never take students more than 5-10 minutes to complete.

Homework

I know there is a lot of debate about homework. Many teachers don’t have a choice, so in those cases I highly recommend spiral review practice pages.

There are several math options you can choose from.

I also have a third grade and fourth grade version of the spiral language review. These go over every single standard pertaining to that grade level. These were no joke to create!

Centers

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