Magical Product Swap

I'm so excited to be participating in Mrs. Stanford's first ever product swap! When Jessica told me that I would be paired with Mandy at Cooperative Learning 365, I couldn't have been more thrilled. 

I was like a kid in a candy store looking through her TpT store. In the end, I finally decided on her Test Prep Strategies pack. This will be so useful in my class as I work with lower readers on how to prepare for benchmarks and SOLs (VA's end of the year assessment). 

I know you may think, "Test prep?! School's just starting! I don't want to think about that yet!" However, I feel like if I teach them how to check their work early on, these strategies will be second nature by the end of the year. Plus the strategies can be used for ANY test and are much more interesting than most test practice. 

Please excuse the blurry picture...

To begin, you will need card sets to practice strategies. You could use this with cards you already have (just make sure you have a way to give students the answer to check), have kids come up with questions/answers on index cards, or even cut up released test questions to use. That's what I plan on doing! Mandy includes 2 pages of general tips for success. Please refer to them for more help!

There are 13 different strategies with idea sheets and colorful posters to go with each strategy. Here are just a few of the posters. This is even with my printer running low on ink! I want to reprint some of them from the end that were too faded from my stupid printer. Go figure it would happen tonight...

The idea sheets (as I will refer to them) are for the teacher. They begin with the strategy steps which are very specific. Then you are given some ideas for test prep. I love that she gives ideas for math and language arts for some of the strategies. Each sheet them has additional tips for general management - such as stressing to students the importance of not leaving anyone out, etc. Finally, Mandy provides a box for you to write ideas for your own class! This is a picture of one idea sheet.

 The last pages of the pack include answer sheets for "Find a Buddy Who" and card templates if you want to create your own. (These should be black - last pages, low ink, this is what you get). Anyway, if you can't tell, there's space for students to write their answer. Then there's a small box in each space for the other student to initial after they check the answer.

These card templates are perfect if you want to make your own. I would recommend printing these on regular paper and gluing them to index cards or cardstock (question on one side, answer on the other). Then laminate.

And that's it! I can't wait to use these with my kids! Go check out Mandy's blog (she's reviewing one of my products) and TpT store. This is only one of MANY great things. She also has a ton of "I Have, Who Has" cards that I may have to go back and get!