Sunday, May 6, 2012

DEW your best!

FINAL day of ISTEP! I wanted to get the kids PUMPED for the final day of testing! What better to do that with than MT. DEW!!!! *Disclaimer- I first discussed this idea with my principal! I didn't let the students drink the Dew at school! I sent an e-mail to my parents warning them that I gave the students Mt. Dew and that it was coming home in their book bag! However, the kids were smiling ear to ear when they saw what was on their desk that morning! I once again went to my favorite program "Publisher" to create my cards that said "DEW your BEST on the rest of the test!"


Needless to say they LOVED it!


ISTEP Day 2

So, my students REALLY liked the Smarties! One even said "do we get NERDS tomorrow?" Not because she asked for it but because it made me "Manterest" another idea, indeed they did get Nerds! A little side note about me, 1. I LOVE to be creative 2. I LOVE to give things to others 3. I LOVE to make people smile! I tossed the idea of giving my students Nerds all day long but just couldn't come up with the right phrase. Day 2 was "Language Arts Day" so I wanted to tie the nerds in with the reading theme.... I think it is the "AH HA" moment that makes me love doing this kind of thing.... This is what I came up with....
Using Publisher I made little cards that said "It is cool to be a NERD....make sure you read every WORD". I then printed them on bright colored card stock.

I then taped a small box of NERDS in the middle and put one on each of my students desk before they came into the room that morning.

They were pretty excited about their treats! I mean what 4th grader doesn't want straight sugar in the morning! (which they did not get to eat before their test!)

Two days of testing down! One to go! What DEW you think I will do for the kiddos on the last day????

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

FOG Delay.....Really TODAY????

When I woke up this morning, I glanced out my window and noticed a shelf of fog sitting near the top of the houses in my neighborhood. I thought to myself "maybe we will have a 2-Hour Delay" and then laughed at myself for thinking such a funny thought! I went on my way and did my morning bible study and prayer time. When it came time for me to get up, I took my phone off the charger and noticed text after text after text that all read "2-Hour Delay"! I quickly turned on the TV and sure enough on the local news it showed that our school had a 2-Hour Delay! I would have been excited had it not been the first day of our state wide standardized testing! YIKES! While talking with a parent of one of my students who is also a teacher in another district about our ISTEP testing, she gave me some advice to share with my students.... her advice was this "Solve First Then Click"! Since it was the first day of our state testing and the students were taking the test on the computer, I thought this was a brilliant phrase for the day! I had already planned on handing out some SMARTIES to the students to get them excited about there testing when this "Manterest" idea came to mind! Here is what I did:

Using the most amazing publishing program "Microsoft Publisher" I created little cards for my kiddos that said "Be a SMARTIE! S.F.T.C Solve First Then Click"

Next, I printed the cards off onto Card Stock and cut them out.

Then I added a SMARTIE to each one!

Finished Product! The kids LOVED their little surprises and their little tip to Solve First Then Click!
Now, I have to give credit where credit is due! The person who gave me the phrase, her name is Pam. So, today's new idea wasn't from Pinterest, wasn't completely from Manterest but more from Pamanterest! Thanks Pam for the GREAT phrase! Now, if only I could come up with some cool phrase when I give the class NERDS for day 2 of testing tomorrow!