It’s official. Test review season is upon us! Here are some ideas to help make your standardized testing prep a little less painful and more effective:
- Play TONS of review games. Change up the teams frequently for the best results. Click here for a list of BOMBtastic review games!
- Come up with a theme and a mascot to cheer you on. Use the theme in review games, certificates of achievements, rewards, etc.
- Laminate station rotation tracking charts and have kids use overhead markers to track their progress through the stations.
- Use your old benchmark tests as review questions for your review games.
- Start a review system early on in the year, so your kids will not have to go as long between learning new content and the standardized test.
- “Test prep does not always have to take place at a desk with a number 2 pencil in hand. Instead, try having students answer questions in one of the following ways:
- Label each wall in your classroom either A, B, C, or D. When reviewing answers, have students move to the wall labeled with the multiple-choice answer they chose.
- Give students different colored pieces of paper or Popsicle sticks. Each color can correlate to a multiple-choice answer (red is A, blue is B, etc.). Have students hold up the color based on which answer they chose.
- Turn your classroom into a museum by creating a gallery walk. Hang test prep questions around the classroom, students can move silently, in partners, or to music to the different “exhibits” around the room. They can then answer the questions on a worksheet or in a notebook that they carry around the room with them.” (Bottom four bullet points from Ashley, Teach For America)
Need more ideas? Check out my golfing review game or no prep Jeopardy.
Word clouds are fun. So why not use them in your classroom!? This page lists a bunch of spring-themed words in cloud form. Kids should color each word a specific color based on its part of speech.
This is one of my spring color by number pages. It uses simple addition and subtraction, so it’d be good for kindergarten or (maybe struggling first graders). The kids color sections of the picture based on the answer to the question.
Learning fraction, decimal and percent equivalents is KILLER! That was by far one of the hardest topics for my kids. I made this sheet to help kids practice fraction-decimal equivalents using a simple number line.
I saw this idea somewhere and fell in love with it! This little house is home to a “fact family.” You could use this for addition/subtraction or for multiplication/division. I’ve made a full page version and a half page version. Sometimes having to complete a half sheet (rather than a full sheet) seems less intimidating to kids even if it’s got the same thing on it. I’ve included a page to use as an example of how to complete the graphic organizer.
The Utah 1st grade Science Standard 2 Indicator 2 reads, “Observe the sun at different times during the day and report observations to peers. Observe and chart the moon when it is visible during the day.” This idea is in most state science cores in one form or another. You can use my sun observation graphic organizer to help students keep track of what they observe.
Arizona Social Studies Strand 3 (Civics/Government) includes a study of the state. For example, in first grade, concept 1/PO 6 says “
This craft made me laugh out loud when I saw the picture. Naturally, I had to share it with you. This bunny hat craft is very simple so children as young as preschool could make it with help. There’s even a nice tutorial at 
Squarehead Teachers 