Do you feel like you’ve used all of the test prep games in your arsenal so much that they don’t truly engage your upper elementary students anymore? Are you preparing for state testing and need some fresh ideas for state testing prep? Well, teacher friend, am I glad to see you! I popped over to my local Dollar Tree the other day to gather ideas for you that are cost-effective and will engage your learners as they prepare for state testing as well as any other tests in your class. Keep reading to discover new test prep activities your students will love! Are you ready to take your test prep games to the next level? One of the Best ELA & Math Test Prep Games When I walked into my local dollar store, the first thing that caught my eye was a whole aisle of Easter eggs! It’s currently springtime when I’m writing this, so this is not much of a surprise. There were all kinds of plastic, fillable Easter eggs (including ones shaped like balls and seashells!), and I thought of how much I love using these in my test prep games - 4th grade, 3rd grade, and 5th grade students all love. There are several ways to use these eggs for your state testing prep, but the basic steps are to print out test review questions, cut them up, and put them inside the plastic eggs. Then, you hide them somewhere, and your students have to find them! I love making it a scavenger hunt, where kids are in teams, and they each have a color of Easter egg to look for. The papers inside the eggs have their review questions and include a clue to where the following eggs are around the school. Students must solve the test prep problems and then move on to find the next egg! You can also do one big egg hunt outside where you hide the eggs, and everyone goes to find one, solve the review question inside, and get another one. The third test prep game I use Easter eggs for is as an escape room of sorts. Kids have to find and solve eggs in a particular order, and when they solve all of the test review questions, they unlock a prize! Use Easter Eggs for ELA Test Prep Games like scavenger hunts! Math Test Prep Games Turn the pool noodles into a math test prep game to review equivalent fractions! Use a serrated knife to chop up some pool noodles into pieces so your students can make equivalent fractions with them, and put them in an open space in your classroom. Give your students a math test review problem where they have to solve and then find the equivalent fractions, or even work with the fractions to add or subtract them! You can also make your questions word problems, as I know that’s always a tricky area for students.  Another one of my favorite test prep games 5th grade is Bingo! I found this bingo game set at the dollar store and thought about how you could create math problems where the answers were the numbers you called, so the students have to solve the math problems to see if they get a bingo! Ex: “I 520,000 divided by 10,000!” You can use this strategy with any math test prep you’re doing to help your students review math skills before state testing. Use pool noodles and bingo for math test prep games. Standardized Test Prep Games for Any Subject I love using gift bags and tissue paper to bring some hype to my standardized test prep! Grab a bunch of these bags and put tissue paper in them. You can also put a prize in each bag, or each bag can have the next review question the students have to answer. Showing them a bunch of presents will get them excited to see what’s inside. You could also put a question and a piece of a puzzle in each bag so that once all of the questions are answered, they create a puzzle to show them their prize (extra recess, Quizziz game, etc.). One other way to use these is as a countdown to finishing state testing. Every day after their tests, someone from the class gets to unwrap the activity you do together. You can also play a test prep game where students earn tickets for correct answers. At the end of the game, you draw a few tickets, and the students who have those tickets get a prize! This is an excellent option for test prep games that aren’t points-based. Add hype to make standardized test prep games 4th grade more engaging! Shaving Cream is a Must for Your State Testing Prep! Shaving cream isn’t necessarily a test prep GAME, but it’s one of the easiest ways to engage your students! Spray a bit of shaving cream on each of their desks and let them play with it for a bit before you do your test prep. Then, have students answer your test prep questions by drawing with their fingers in the shaving cream! This test prep activity works great for math, spelling, or grammar. Small Group Test Prep Games Another of my fun test prep games is using these games in the toy section of the Dollar Tree! These can be used in small groups or as a class, and you can use them to review for any test! I usually make the rules to include that students must answer a question before they can have a turn at the game. If you pick up the ring toss for your 3rd grade test prep games (or any other grade for that matter), your students can keep track of how many times they land the ring on the target, and whoever has the most landed rings is the winner. Use these for 5th, 4th, and 3rd grade test prep games in small groups! Test Prep Games for the Classroom That Students Love Have you seen the ball popper toys? I found bunnies for Easter, but they have them frequently at the Dollar Tree and in Bullseye’s Playground at Target. Students can have a bank of review questions, and each time they finish one, they get to either make a basket with their ball popper or see how far they can get the ball to fly, and they can earn points based on that! This tool can work for so many test prep games - 4th grade and other elementary grades love them! Kids always love a challenge, right? Create a Room Transformation to Play Fun Test Prep Games I love using dollar store decorations to create a room transformation, and it doesn’t have to be crazy! I saw these island decorations and items and instantly thought of how you could make an island or Hawaiian-themed transformation to play your standardized test prep games. Kids could wear summery outfits, and you can hang up these inflatable palm trees and flower paper cutouts around your room.  You could have challenges set up like “Reading on the Beach,” where they sit on a beach towel to practice their reading test questions, and “Sand Castle Math,” where they get a cup or some building tool for each correct answer they get in the math task cards to build a castle as high as they can. Kids can also wear sunglasses for added engagement, and I highly recommend playing ocean waves in the background for a peaceful test prep day! Create a room transformation for a whole day of test prep games 5th grade! Need More Test Prep Games Ideas? Check out these articles for other fun test prep games for your upper elementary testing season! 36 Awesome Test Prep Review Ideas! A Game-Based Approach to Test Prep Engaging Test Prep Ideas Food for thought: don’t forget to prepare your students for state testing mentally and emotionally. This time of year can be taxing for them, and they may be feeling anxious about state testing. So while preparing them with test prep games is super important, preparing their minds and hearts is just as important! Watch this video for strategies to prepare your upper elementary students for state testing.

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