I cannot believe I am writing a blog post about this. Unfortunately, the amount of testing for the students doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.. so it forces teachers to get creative keeping the students busy while testing kiddos 1:1. I don't want to show movies endlessly. I want the kiddos to do something that is engaging that can be completed QUIETLY so I can test as quickly as possible.
Bring in... Squiggle Books!
Students turn the squiggle into a picture, and then write about their squiggle. My guidelines for working on this are as follows:
1. The squiggle should be colorful and it needs to fill the space. There shouldn't be any white space on the page.
2. Your story about the squiggle should also fill the page. Be creative, and tell a fun story.
3. You must check in with me before you can move on to the next page.
Easy enough! The students work quietly on their squiggles, and I can get my testing done. I model the appropriate way to check in with me while testing so that I can get keep them busy while I'm testing, and most of the time the students need to add more information to their story or the picture before they can move on. This works out so that they don't have only squiggles and no writing.
How do you keep the kiddos busy when you have individual testing?
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