Testing Toolbox

So this post is a day late and a dollar short, but here it is anyway.  I'm sure it will make a great throwback post next year.  I'm just way ahead like that. ;) The beauty of testing this year was that we were flooded out on Monday and supposed to test on the Tuesday we came back.  Then the kids walked back in like crazy hooligans that were going to tear apart the school with their shenanigans.  Ok...maybe I'm exaggerating...maybe.  Well a decision was made that we would not start testing on Tuesday...so what am I supposed to do on Tuesday.  Let's not ask what I was going to do on Monday because I have no clue on that either.  Testing stress had set in and I was winging it.  Well this is what I came up with on short notice. (Sorry I forgot to get pics of my lovely student work)

We have been talking for weeks, months, years (there I go exaggerating again) about our strategies for testing and all the tools we've learned that have equipped us for the test.  The best part of this is it is super easy to throw together at the last minute and if you have construction paper you are golden.

Step one: Fold a piece of construction paper into thirds.  I made sure the two folding pieces overlapped.  I did fold the red page for my students because I was rushing and didn't know how well my kids would fold.  They have a low tolerance for frustration and so did I that day lol.

Step two: I cut a black piece of construction paper into fourths.  The piece of red construction paper and the 1/4 of the black constructions paper are all you need for each tool box.  It's that simple.

The next step is something that my kids did without many issues.  I had them start on the long edge and cut up most of the way.  Then showed them how to cut a rounded corner and then cut most of the length of the paper before turning their scissors back down.

This is what their piece looked like.  Some of my students went ahead and used the large handle piece for the handle of their toolbox.

I wanted a smaller handle for the toolbox, so I showed the students how they could do the same cut with the rectangle left over from the first cut.

Once you glue the handle on the back of the toolbox the easy stuff is done.  Woohoo!!  Now it was time for their toolbox to add some tools.  On each of the folds the students were instructed to write a different set of tools.  The top was ELA and we put on things like going back in the story, main idea, fact and opinion, cause and effect, author's purpose, capitals and endmarks, narratives with beginning middle and end, and pretty much anything else we could think of.  Math included multiplication, division, in and out tables, adding to check your subtraction, rounding, and the other million and one things we've learned.  Testing strategies was the super easy part for my kids because we've been talking about them non-stop.  These were the things they need to remember specifically for the test like eat a good breakfast, get a good night's sleep, go back and check your work, bubble neatly, etc.

The kids adored the toolbox because it wasn't more traditional test prep.  It also got them jazzed and reminded all of them how far they had come. Their teacher was excited that there were no copies, no prep, no grading, and they could do this mostly on their own once we got past the brainstorming.  Then they got to decorate the outside which put them in marker and crayon heaven.  I will post a disclaimer that if children begin using scraps of black paper to glue mustaches and beards on their faces I take no responsibility (no joke I answered an email, turned around and they had glued things to their faces).

Happy Testing!