Instructional Coaches Corner

5 Fun Formatives For Any Classroom!

Do you sometimes feel that you are creating little robots in the classroom? Are you bored with all your assessments? Do you feel like all you do is test your students? Chances are, if you’re bored, so are your students. Assessments don’t have to be boring. The purpose of formative assessments is for you, the teacher, to know if the students are learning. Formative assessments don’t have to be boring! Below are 5 fun formative assessments to spruce up any classroom and will work with any grade level! It’s time to bring the fun back into learning.

Bring The Fun Back:

Teachers are feeling the pressure! I have had some Kindergarten teachers make the comment that they feel like they are creating little robots. That there isn’t time for the”fun” stuff that we used to do in Kindergarten as kids. I had to stop and think and took a close look at why they thought that. I found out that Kindergarten is the new 1st grade (according to what I learned in 1st grade). Kids were learning all of their letter sounds and start putting them into cvc words in preschool. The only thing I remember doing in preschool was learning how to tie my shoes and playing Jack In The Box. The Kindergarteners are now working on sight words and reading books. I remember learning the alphabet and playing dress up in Kindergarten when I was little. Now don’t get me wrong, I am grateful that the rigor has been increased and we now have higher expectations for our students. I am thankful for the new Common Core and State Standards. I am excited to see how the increase in rigor will affect our students in adulthood. I believe in using the Core Standards to ensure that all students across the nation are being taught the same standards. I also believe in autonomy in the classrooms, the freedom of creativity and the art of teaching.

With the art of teaching we can teach those standards in creative, fun ways. I believe that testing and worksheets do have a place in the classrooms, but I also believe that that we should not be stuck to a basal. We need to bring the fun back into teaching and learning! One way we can do that is through using technology programs for formative assessments. All of the following assessments are FREE and 100% customizable. All of these tools are appropriate for Kindergarteners all the way up to adults and both give students immediate feedback. The immediate feedback is great to discuss with students throughout the assessment (Great reteaching conversations!)

Plickers: Teacher Needs One Device, Students Need Plickers Cards

One fun formative assessment is Plickers. Use Plickers for quick checks for understanding to know whether your students are understanding big concepts and mastering key skills. Plickers is great if you have limited tech tools and works with one device such as an iPad or smart phone. Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices. To sign up for a free Plickers account just log in to plickers.com sign up and print out the cards.

Plickers Formative Assessment In A 5th Grade Classroom

Kahoot: Each Student Needs A Device Connected To The Internet

A second fun formative assessment is Kahoot. Kahoots work on any device that connects to the internet (computers, tablets, smart phones). To sign up for a free account log into Kahoot.it and sign up. Kahoots are best played in a group setting, like a classroom. Players answer on their own devices, while games are displayed on a shared screen to unite the lesson – creating a ‘campfire moment’ – encouraging players to look up. Social learning promotes discussion and pedagogical impact… whether players are in the same room or on the other side of the globe! After a game, encourage players to create and share their own Kahoots to deepen understanding, mastery and purpose.

Kahoot immediate student feedback view in a 3rd Grade classroom

Flip The Bottle:

A third fun formative assessment is bottle flipping. So, this has been the new craze with kids. It’s all the kids are talking about (at least in my school). My 10 year old and 7 year old are obsessed with flipping bottles. They even watch Youtube videos of other kids flipping bottles. Talk about motivation!!!! Why not harness this excitement and turn it into a fun formative? It’s simple yet challenging.

All you need to do is find a water bottle (my son says that Gatorade bottles work best because of their hard bottoms) and fill it 1/3 full of water. Just make sure that the lid is on tight so that it won’t leak..Create a giant bullseye with butcher paper. Draw a series of circles within the bullseye. I drew the outside circles larger assigning them less points. I shrunk the circles as I got closer to the bullseye and increased the points. I made the actual bullseye worth 100 points with the circle about the size of a quarter. Once your bullseye is created it’s time to get your questions ready. You can play this as a class or have partners play it together as a review game or even just to practice a skill. I would place my questions on index cards. You could also have  your students create their own questions. To play, take turns flipping over the questions. If a student answers it correctly, they get to flip the bottle on to the bullseye. Keep track of points. Points are only awarded for a bottle that lands upright on a circle. I would count it if any part of the bottle was touching the circle. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. I have actually used this free download for students to keep track of their points (you could also use the circles for your bullseye) from a blog that I ran across by by Erin*tegration. I use the toss and task game cards. They are AMAZING!!! This blog has TONS of ideas on how bottle flipping can be used in the classroom. 

 Download it for free here.

Punch Game:

A forth fun formative assessment is the punch game. All you need are plastic cups, foam core, tissue paper and rubber bands. Hot glue the plastic cups to the foam core. Fill each cup with a review question (I put treats in a few) along with a point card. I use index cards. You could just write the points on the back of the question card. More difficult questions are worth more points. Secure the tissue paper around the top of the cup with the rubber band and you are ready to start! I would start the game by asking a review question. If the student gets it right they get to punch a cup. They will get to collect the point card. That student will then read their question to the class and choose the next student to answer it. If that student gets the answer correct, they get to punch a cup and keep the point card. If they don’t get it right the student who is holding the card will call on another student.

You could also use this as a reward center for students who reach their goals. Place a prize (I like to use free tickets such as 20 minutes of free time or a free recess) in each cup. Once students meet their goal they get to punch a cup and collect their prize. This would also be great for birthdays.

Snowball Fight:

A fifth fun formative is a snowball fight! Who wouldn’t be motivated by a snowball fight? Especially if you are in an area that doesn’t get real snow. How often are kids asked to throw things at each other in school?…..NEVER! Until now. This is great to use as a formative assessment and super motivating. My students always thought I was just kidding at first. Until I asked them to get out a piece of paper. They were instructed to write down a review question on the topic that we were working on and wad up their paper into a snowball. Their challenge was to challenge their classmates with their question. I also turned my own questions into snowballs. I had a bucket full ready to go to ensure that I had all of the questions that I wanted. The only instructions I gave to my 3rd graders was to make sure not to throw their snowball at anyone’s face or eyes. We had to keep throwing snowballs until the timer went off. Once every student had their snowball I counted down from 5. I set a timer for 1 minute and we had a snowball fight until our timer went off. Trust me, a minute is plenty of time. Some of my students were sweating after a minute. At the end of the minute each student had to get with a partner and read their questions. Their partner had to answer them. I then had partner groups share their questions and answers with the class.  Once the first round was finished we repeated the snowball fight a few more times. This game is a HUGE favorite with my students and super easy to play with very little prep!

Snowball fights are also GREAT to use at the beginning of the school year as a get to know you game. Students write things about themselves on their snowball but DO NOT put their name on their paper. This way whoever gets that snowball needs to figure out who it belongs to. This was a great ice breaker, get to know you activity:)

This is a great book with TONS of easy formative assessments!
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 “Steal” Teachers Ideas to Showcase Them

Bathroom Blog:

Are you a new Instructional Coach or are thinking about becoming one? Wondering where to start with the teachers? I would suggest showcasing teachers’ talents. I mean how often do teachers get recognized for the great things they do everyday in their classrooms? Create a blog (both digital and a bathroom blog) and an Instructional Coach Facebook page to post classroom happenings to showcase teachers. Yes, I said bathroom blog:) I bought a foam board that is used for presentations (similar to a poster board) at my local Wal-Mart. I also purchased a yard of fun fabric and some spray glue that I used to attach the fabric to the foam board. I then found some glitter stickers that I used for the title of my blog. I chose to just call it Bathroom Blog! I then bought some silver push pins that I used for the boarder of the blog. They double as pins to use when I place my findings on the blog. I came up with the bathroom blog as I was thinking about blogs in general. Blogs differ from Facebook because they don’t give automatic updates. I was also thinking about those teachers who are not necessarily tech savvy and how BORING our bathrooms were. I thought it would be fun and convenient at the same time. Everyone potties throughout the day, it’s part of our human functions. Why not give those teachers some amazing classroom findings as well as researched based strategies to read while they go?

A “stolen” idea: A 1st Grade Teacher Setting Up Sight Word Candyland

Classroom Visits:

The culture and morale in our elementary building was fairly low. Teachers are overworked, don’t have time to really dig deep into anything and are facing multiple stressors on a daily basis with little to no recognition. So, my second goal was to help build the teachers up. We have really good teachers who really care about the students. They do good things each and every day that go above and beyond their teaching responsibilities, just because they are good teachers. I did this with the intent of conducting a classroom visit (NOT OBSERVATION) with each elementary teacher. Please stay far away from the word OBSERVATION! It gives the assumption that you are there to evaluate, which you are not! Classroom visit is much less threatening to teachers. Conduct classroom visits on a regular basis and eventually it will become a normal thing in the classrooms. Teachers may be nervous with the first few visits, but it will be a culture change so hang in there. If they can see that you are there to support and not judge, trust will be built and the culture will change. In conducting classroom visits I found ssssssooooooo many amazing ideas that I wish I would have known about when I was in the classroom. I just had to share with other teachers.

This idea was “stolen” from a 4th grade teacher. She had her kids create a visual with each one of the 50 states that they were learning about. This is a visual from the state of Alaska. This eskimo was displayed on the students’ lockers.

Showcase Teachers:

I wanted to showcase the talents in our elementary buildings as well as build trust and build relationships with showcasing our teachers’ talents. I decided to “steal” teaching ideas. When I say “steal” I mean find at least one takeaway (strategy, organizational idea, classroom management strategy….) from each classroom to showcase on my blog and school Facebook page. I came up with that idea from seeing the AMAZING things that were happening in the classrooms. Ok, so I didn’t really steal the ideas. I asked the teachers for permission to use these “stolen ideas”. As a 3rd grade teacher, there were so many times that I walked into one of my colleague’s classrooms at the end of the day to coordinate my pacing and found things that were amazing. At the time I thought to myself, “why didn’t I think of that?” and “why didn’t you share this with me, it’s awesome”?  My goal was to share the AWESOMENESS that I found in each classroom to the other teachers by showcasing their ideas. They were instructed to “steal” the ideas that were shared. However, I wanted to expand on this thinking. I knew that time (or the lack there of) was an issue for most teachers, so, I also created a bathroom blog. I made bulletin boards with the the title Bathroom Blog and placed them in the bathrooms. Our bathrooms were pretty boring, I mean, have you ever been in a bathroom that wasn’t? I placed them directly in front of the toilet in the women’s bathroom and behind the toilet in the men’s bathroom. This way the teachers didn’t have to take extra time to look online to find the strategies. All “stolen” strategies and ideas were right there for all to see. I had a great response to this. The teachers thought it was pretty clever and LOVED it. I try and change the strategies every Friday to keep things fresh. I make sure to add the pictures and descriptions along with the recognition of where the strategy came from along with any graphic organizers they may need to fully implement the strategy on their own.

I also posted my own ideas on the bathroom blog to share with others. This is a picture of my own child using a glow in the dark reading finger to practice his reading. Simple, but a HUGE motivator. I used these Halloween witches fingers with my 3rd graders as well. They kept one in their reading box to use during read to self time. You can grab 24 fingers for $5.29 here (great price).

                                                                                   *This post contains affiliate links.