FREEBIE!! Fun Test Prep Questions

We came back from Spring Break ONE day before our state assessments!  We were off for 11 days.  BAM! Testing!!

So, I made these fun test questions for my students to answer on the day before testing.  I wanted them to have a relaxing day back.  Of course, we did other review activities.  However, my kiddos loved these questions and sharing their answers!  This was a lot of fun for my kiddos.  I thought someone else might want to use the idea!

The questions are simple.  For example, in one I asked them to tell me  a favorite memory from the school year.  In another, I asked them to tell me their favorite book we read this year and to give two reasons.

Here are some of my students' papers... 

Nikita is so sweet!  He said his teachers are beautiful and sweet!

"Mr. Ratchford has a good voice for the BFG"
It was fun reading these!

    

You can download the questions from my TPT store.  Click on the picture below!  It is a Word Document.  Feel free to edit, revise, change, to meet your needs! Please leave feedback!! :)

                                                

Do You Dojo?

I just love ClassDojo and what it has done for my classroom!  Honestly, I used to get complaints from some parents about not communicating enough.  I was very frustrated as I'm sure many of you have been with hearing something like this from parents.  I made weekly newsletters for parents.  I had the students write messages and reminders to parents.  I made calendars of events to go along with the school provided.  I still heard from a few parents that I wasn't communicating enough!  I had to do something else!

I found ClassDojo to be my answer!  I have been using it since the start of the school year.  I was skeptical at first.  I saw on a few sites that some had negative experiences with the app.  I however, have only positive experiences! Parents love it!  I love it!  And better than that, the kids love it!  The kids have their own login information for them to log on at home to check their progress.  They can even choose their monster.

I use Dojo for my weekly conduct grade.  It is great for instant class message reminders.  Parents can communicate with me instantly just like text messaging.  At first, I was concerned that it would be difficult to use and keep track of during the school day.  However, I printed a class list and I have a student job for keeping track of positive points I give out for the day.  I easily enter them in five minutes at the end of the day!

Another feature that ClassDojo added this year is Class Story videos.  They have character education videos that my kiddos love!

We just participated in the ClassDojo Design a Monster contest.  My students had a blast!  I will continue to use this activity in the years to come!  We took it a step further and made a craftivity out of their designs.  Each student used construction paper to create their monster.

Thinking Maps

Have struggling writers?

Have you used Thinking Maps in your classroom?  

I started using Thinking Maps in my classroom last year after going to the professional development training at my school.  I cannot express enough how grateful I am for being able to have attended that training!  Using Thinking Maps has transformed my students' writing.

Even my students that normally struggle when it comes to expressing their thoughts have been able to achieve success using Thinking Maps!  No more tears!  No more struggle!  These Thinking Maps empower the students!  They are able to take ownership of their writing like I have never seen before!

My students read articles about the Gold Rush this week.  The created Tree Maps to identify the main ideas and key details in the two different articles.  Then, they used different colors to use them like Bubble Maps.  After this they were able to write detailed paragraphs expressing the similarities and differences in the articles.