Testing, testing, testing....

I float around the Facebook and Pinterest worlds probably too frequently.  One is to socialize with family, friends, former and current colleagues, and former students and the other is to get new ideas for practically everything under the sun.  Frequently I'll come across cartoon or ecards making fun of standardized tests.  Like this one...

...and these ecards that we see everywhere...

Right now my state, and I'm sure many of the states, are in the midst of standardized testing.  If not now, then  they will be later on in the spring.  I can't help but think the rigorous scheduling and the strict regulations imposed on our students can be stressful in itself, never mind the content. How on earth does one expect 8 and 9-year-olds to sit still for 45 to 90 minutes without walking around?  I  can't even stay in one spot that long.  I must add, however, that our guidance department has done a fantastic job of scheduling the test sessions in a realistic manner, but just the same.  Let's just say it's a good thing our kiddos get a recess.  I'm just hoping the weather stays nice, at least until the test sessions are finished so they can continue to go outside to play.

One thing that I've tried to do before and after the testing time is do some stress-relieving breathing exercises and stretches.  After the second day they actually started looking forward to it.  They were so cute, because they thought I was forgetting and asked to do the stretches. I've also tried to give them activities, related to the content they're learning, of course, that was more on the creative side that gave them a mental break, at least for the rest of the morning.  One of the activities they worked on this week had to do with their social studies unit on communities.

I found this cute idea on Pinterest where they focused on 5 specific communities: their house, their city/town, their country, their continent, and their planet.  I gave them card stock with 5 circles.  Two of the circles they had to draw, such as their house and their town.  For their country, continent, and planet, I provided them with a copy already printed out that they just had to color.  Here's a picture of what we did:

This isn't the best picture, but you see how the end result looked.  I hung them on pushpins on the edge of our windows to display them.  Like I said, it was an easy project that meant something, but gave them a chance to relax a bit.

Another activity they did was to color and put together their scarecrows.  They came out cute and are now hung in our hallway outside of our classroom....

Below the scarecrows is the pumpkin I put together with sheets of orange card stock that I taped together in the back, drew the pumpkin, then laminated it after I cut it out.  The leaves have the Haikus that my students wrote about fall.  I showed them a nice autumn picture of a path in the woods, and they drew from their experiences to focus on what they might have seen, heard, smelled, tasted (like hot chocolate), or felt while they were in the woods.  I also have pumpkins that they will write short writing pieces on about other autumn experiences.  

Everyone else was doing trees with leaves, so I decided to take a different approach.  I don't always like following the crowd.  I've always been the type of person to go my own direction, after having been inspired by others, of course.

I'm really enjoying being a 3rd grade teacher.  Not that I didn't at first, but I'm beginning to feel more comfortable and have been thinking more like a third grade teacher than in the beginning.  I'm still a work in progress, but I think I'll always be one.