State Testng Encouragement Notes and Treats

Hey Everyone!

I can't believe that the school year is almost to an end and state testing for intermediate students is here. Here in Tennessee our intermediate students have been testing for a week and have 5 days left. As a primary teacher, I thankfully do not have to deal with the true stress of testing days.

This year our school is working hard to boost the morale and show our support for the intermediate grades during the stressful time of testing. In order to encourage our intermediate students and help destress their teachers each primary class has adopted an intermediate class. By adopting an intermediate class/teacher we are responsible for providing them with positive notes of encouragement and treats during testing days. This sounds like it could become costly depending on your adopted class' size or the number of testing days, however, the key is involving your parents. I currently work in a title 1 school and know that parent involvement isn't always there but I have found that parents love sending treats in. In order to get my parents help I sent out a message to all of the parents over ClassDojo. In this message I explained that we have adopted a 4th grade class and providing them treats during the testing days and provided a list of items we needed.

Before I jump into what we did for the students I want to share a picture of my testing survival kit that I created for the teacher. I grabbed this adorable tin bucket in the Target Dollar Spot for $3 and to my surprise when I rang it up it was actually 50% off! Gotta love when that happens. I filled her testing survival kit up with her favorite treats to help get her through the first week of testing. I mean what teacher doesn't need caffine and chocolate during a stressful week like testing.

Here are some cheap/free ideas that we have done for our adopted intermediate class!

Day 1 of Testing

On the first day of testing I decorated our adopted 4th grade class' door. I used the very popular Pinterest saying of "Donut Stress" and covered their door with donut cutouts. My students then each took a donut cut out and wrote an encouraging message on the back. & Of course we couldn't have a DONUT themed day without donuts so a box of munchkins topped the day off!

Day 2 of Testing

On the second day of testing we gave the 4th graders a How to Rock Your Test booklet from Learning in Wonderland. This is a free product in her store that you can grab here. The 4th graders loved reading their "how to" books. Their How to Rock Your Test booklets were also accompanied by pencils with inspiring messages.

This was an idea I found from an awesome teacher I follow on Instagram, SmartCookieClassroomTPT. 

Messages on the pencils included:

You've got this!

You'll rock this test!

Donut Stress!

You can do it!

Believe in your selfie!

Day 3 of Testing

We gave our 4th graders jellybean filled plastic eggs. If you snag these plastic eggs after Easter you can get them for an unbelievably low price. I had actually stocked up on them a year or two ago so I had a surplus laying around which was perfect for this occasion.

Day 4 of Testing

We are giving our 4th graders a glow stick bracelet with a tag that says

"You Will Shine Bright On Your Test!" I snagged these glowstick bracelets from the Target Dollar Spot. They came in a pack of 15 and were only $1.00! You really can't beat that.

Day 5 of Testing 

We will be giving our 4th graders cookies with the message, "We think this class is a bunch of smart cookies!" And their teacher is getting a SMART water. :) 

Last Day of Testing 

For the last day of testing we will be "chillin" out with our 4th grade friends and enjoying some popsicles on the playground. I hope that this will be a fun way for my students and the 4th graders to get to know eachother, have fun, and destress.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and checking out my blog. I hope that you were able to get some ideas for your own class or an adopted class to help them destress and stay motivated during the stressful time of state testing. You can grab all of the tags featured in my blog post for FREE over in my TPT store. Click here to grab them today. Thanks again for stopping by! :)