The Testing Tailgate!

I just posted yesterday about my BBQ Bash, and if I am being honest, I was crossing my fingers that I would be able to pull this off today! Ha!  :)  I don't own a laminator at home, so I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to laminate, cut, and distribute everything on time to get this party started.  Fortunately, I somehow got in touch with my inner superhero and  kicked it into high gear.  We were able to get through everything I wanted to accomplish.  Hallelujah!  :)

Confession: This whole Test Prep Blitz has been a total labor of love.  I started working on it on the first day of my Spring Break, and I haven't stopped obsessing over it ever since.  I hit the jackpot at Dollar Tree, and I was able to come up with so many cute themed activities for my Football Frenzy pack as a result!  Since my students were enjoying the football themed centers and review games so much and we don't test until a Tuesday (Tuesday, as in tomorrow), I KNEW that I had to come up with something amazing for the Monday before the test.  After a trip to Target, and seeing all of the cute barbecue themed goodies in the Dollar Spot, I knew I HAD to throw a tailgating party!  Friends, check out all of the goodies I found over my Spring Break!  Do you see why I JUST HAD TO?!

As you can see, I just couldn't help myself!  :)  Everything was WAY too cute to ignore!  So, even though I was ready to stop at 300 pages, I forced myself to dig in and create one more pack for the tailgate, and after today, I am SO glad I did!  This was definitely the icing on the cake, and I have two very excited and confident classes as a result.  Today was all about CELEBRATING and helping my students to feel even more motivated and confident, and it worked like a charm!  Yay!!!  I think they are now ready for the BIG GAME!  Here's a little peek at some of my centers:

A syllabication center.

ANTonym Match Up

The task cards I used are by Kathy Evans.  They are F-R-E-E.  Simply Google her name and task cards to find them! 

Option 1: With CARS.  {These cars are Easter eggs from Dollar Tree}

Option 2:  You can use cards from my BBQ Bash Pack to park a "car" on the task cards.

Grill Me: Fact or Opinion?

Main Ideas are a Picnic!

It's not a tailgate without Cornhole! {Shhh... don't tell my kids that this is technically a bean bag toss!} 

Students created sentences with high frequency words.   {These are coasters from Dollar Tree!  Not included in pack!}

This is what each "sandwich" looks like close-up!  

In addition to my centers, I also threw in a few picnic centers by Reagan Tunstall to round everything out, and keep it light.  At this point, my kiddos either have it or they don't, so I threw some non-test prep skills into the mix as well.  :)  Why not have a little fun with the theme for the sake of getting students excited about the big game?!

We prepared for the OAA with Reagan's Compound Cool-Aid!

This was the part that was just for fun!  The students got to create sentences with skewers!  I found the grill tray at Target, and I KNEW that we HAD to do this center!  You could use this with my "Grill Me" game too!  :)

In other news, we completed Football Buddies from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  Of course, for us, the "big game" is the OAA, and their prediction had more to do with how they think they will perform tomorrow!  I just LOVE how colorful and unique each football player is, plus they fill up the empty space on my Focus Wall quite nicely.  

Since I am departmentalized and teach almost sixty kiddos, I had to put hang one group's football guys in the hallway instead of around my room.  Otherwise, I might feel a little claustrophobic! Ha!   I decorated around our OAA Promise so that it's the first thing they will see tomorrow morning! Here are a few of the BALLERS.

I also hung some of their test strategies posters in the hallway as a final reminder.  Hopefully my kiddos will read them while they are stuffing backpacks into their lockers before they enter their homerooms!  In addition, my teaching partner and I had our students create celebrity profiles.  (We keep telling the kiddos that they will ROCK the OAA, so I guess it's only fitting.  Sure, it doesn't have anything to do with football, but hey!  My work wife is doing more of a rockstar theme for math, so we wanted to get this up before they took both tests to make them feel special and capable! Notice the password for tomorrow: CAPABLE!)  I think they turned out so well! 

So, where does this leave us?  Well, according to the countdown, we have ZERO days until the OAA! If the smiley faces are any indication, I'd say that my students are feeling pretty good about it too!

 The desks have been spaced out, the treats and notes of encouragement have been distributed, and I have rolled out the playing field for my "OAA Rockers".   As their coach, I know that I have taught them all of the skills and strategies that they need to know.   I know that they are ready, but I still have the jitters!  Tomorrow, when my students walk through the door, they will be seeing THIS.  They won't see my heart jumping out my chest.  They won't see me panic.  They will see my smile, and they will hear me say, "This is the day we've been waiting for!  This is the Super Bowl of Third Grade!  It's time to show everyone just how smart you are!"  After all, at the end of the day, you have to have FAITH.  Confidence is everything.