Testing Treats

We began our state testing today.  Dun. Dun. Duuuuuuuuuuun.

It’s a big day in my world.  It’s the day that leads to all those decisions on whether the kids have learned enough.  On whether the kids can apply their knowledge.  On whether I’m good enough.

There are so many things I’d like to say in response to that.  There are so many better ways to evaluate students and their progress than a very large and long test that stresses them, and us.  I’m all for accountability but I think there can, and should, be a better way.

I try to do everything I can to tell my kids that they are ready and can do well.  I try to keep them calm and relaxed as much as possible, while still expecting them to take it seriously and do their best.

To pump the kids up a bit, and give them something positive to start each testing day, I bought some treats and came up with some cute, motivating sayings to help brighten their mornings before testing.

Yesterday, before we even began testing, everyone got one of these.  I just used a Sharpie to draw on the string cheese.  If you don’t live in a snowy area, or if your testing is later in the year, this may not make sense, but for places that begin testing in February (ugh!) this works out great!

This morning, we began round 1 of testing.  The candy cane gave the kids some peppermint, since I’ve heard that it also improves focusing.  Can’t hurt, right?

On Monday, for the next round of testing, each kid will get a mini donut and this note.  We’ll be doing our writing assessment prompt, and they’ll need some motivation to continue writing for the extended period of time.

I’ll also pass these out on Tuesday for the last test of this round.  It really works that the testing falls during Easter since I found tons of Easter candy that works!

We’ll finish out this week test free, but the following week begins our next round of tests so we’ll need a few more testing treats to keep the kids going.

The next few weeks will be long and stressful.  When it’s over, we’ll have a couple months before our final round of state testing continues.  Unfortunately, the way things are set up for us, the final round isn’t as difficult as this round.  So, that does mean, once it’s done, it’s done and we can breathe a little easier and enjoy the rest of the year.  Hopefully these treats give kids a few things to look forward to.

If you want to download these testing treat tags to use with your kids, just click the image below to head to my TpT store and get it for free.