How Would You Like To Quickly and Immediately Know Each Child's Skill Level AND Win a $50 Gift Card for TpT?

It's As Easy As 1, 2, 3!

Bonus: Try ESGI FREE for 60 days & you will be entered in a raffle for one of TEN $50 Gift Cards for Teachers Pay Teachers!

1. Choose the skills you want to test from the library of skills or you can even create your own test to match your curriculum and report card!

Simply click & drag the tests you want to use into your dock. 

2.  Quickly assess students, in fact, they will enjoy it so much that they will actually beg you to test them!

If the student is correct, click "yes" and if not correct, click "no". 

3. Easily analyze  the data for each child or your entire class. Use it to plan your RTI or drive your lessons!

When I click on the grey, it lists the names of the students who haven't mastered that skill.

Best of all, it will save you hours upon hours of time and your students will enjoy the testing process. No more testing stress on your part or theirs! 

You can print out individualized flashcards for each child.

You can print parent letters in English or Spanish that list skills mastered as well as skills not mastered. 

Try it for FREE for 60 days and, it you enter the code KFUN when when sign up for your FREE trial, you will automatically qualify for $40 off of your 1st year making your total cost $159! 

Click the image to get started!

You don't need a credit card to sign up for the FREE trial, 

so there is no risk at all. 

Remember to sign up for your FREE trial before Sept. 30 

to be entered in the $50 gift card raffle. 

ESGI is giving away TEN gift cards!

I am confident that you will LOVE it as much as I do! 

How To Be A Superhero Teacher: Win this $2000 Prize for your Team!

Let's Face It...

... kids are stressed! They are expected to do so much more than ever before and they are tested beyond belief! That is why I have made it my mission, my goal, my life's quest (OK, Palma, calm down) to share tips and techniques that make learning FUN, meaningful, reduce classroom stress, and help teachers to provide the data necessary to drive instruction and make their administrators happy.

So, how do we achieve this?

If you have been following my blog, you have surely picked up a few tips and techniques along the way to make your lessons fun and meaningful without turning the teacher into a Pinterest groupie.  "But what about the testing?" you ask. Well, here is my secret weapon...

Making Testing FUN:

The best way I have found to make testing FUN, (yes, I said FUN), is to test on a computer, laptop, or tablet with ESGI. When I first saw ESGI years ago at a conference and I discovered that you can create your own custom tests, my eyes got as big as saucers!

Sure, you can use the wonderful built-in tests that ESGI and "Friends of ESGI" have made (I'm one of the friends and I created T.K. assessments). But getting to create my own tests allowed me to test the letter names and sounds in the order I taught them in and I was even able to create trimester tests! 

The Best Things About ESGI:

1. My kids beg to be tested ("Please, can you test me next?")

2. The data is so helpful for creating my RTI groups, driving instruction, and reporting to both parents and administrators. (We also use it for team planning as we look for student needs and trends while planning new lessons.)

3. The parent letters and flashcards save me oodles of hours each week. (Before, I would study the test results and handwrite individualized flashcards for EACH student. Now, I just click "print flashcards".)

AND... as an added bonus, you get a very useful parent conferencing tool that helps you to easily schedule parent conferences and helps keep you super organized.

Now, you can win a FREE year!

I'm giving away one FREE year of ESGI for up to TEN TEACHERS on your team! Yep, you heard that right! That's a $2000 value!  

An ENTIRE TEAM of teachers at your grade level

can win one FREE year by entering my Rafflecoptor.
Sign up for your 60-day FREE trial & enter the code B2174.
No credit card # required. 
Existing ESGI customers:
 just enter your user name for a chance to win 
an entire year, up to 10 licenses, for your grade level.

This give-away is over.
The winner is:
Ashley Sharp!

Fear not:

If you don't win, you still get to try out ESGI for FREE for 60 days, but wait, it gets better.

Click the icon to sign up for FREE.(No credit card required.)

If you remember to enter the code: B2174 when you sign up for your free trial, you will automatically get $40 off of your first year with ESGI!  You heard that right, $40 off!

So you can go ahead and enter through the Rafflecopter and sign up for your FREE trial now, enter the code, and give it whirl. Your administrators will love it, your fellow teachers will want to know how you are able to save yourself so much time each week (and just imagine how thrilled they will be if you win a 10-license package for your team!), and your students will be begging you to be tested. Trust me, I have used ESGI for years now and it was the BEST thing I ever did!

You Can Win 1 Year of ESGI, The BEST Online Testing Program EVER

Have You Heard of ESGI?

Click the image to get the FREE 60 day trial and more info about ESGI.

I have been using it for about 6 years now and I'm still loving it!  Let me tell you why:

It's easy to use.  They even have quick videos to get you started.

I can use their stock tests or I can easily create my own tests.

I can test students quickly on a desktop computer, a laptop, an iPad, or even on my smart phone.

My students beg to be tested.  I'm serious, they really do!

I can get soooooo much data from ESGI.  They tell me which students have mastered each skill and which students have not. 

I can print out flashcards for each individual student.   I can use these for in-class intervention and I can send a set home for parents to work on with their child.

I can print out parent letters telling them specifically which skills their child has mastered and which skills they need to practice and the letters come in English and Spanish.

I can make my administrator very happy by providing data from the beginning of the year and each trimester so we can record growth and areas of need.

I can go on and on, but why don't you take a look at their web site and check out their short videos by clicking right HERE.

So, How Do You Win This?

You can enter right here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can enter each category once, but you may leave a comment every day for extra entries.
Can't wait?  Try their FREE 60-day trial and use my code (B2174) for $40 off of your 1st year.

Click HERE to get your FREE 60-day trial started.  

Good luck.

Check out my:

FaCeBoOk:  Click Here to see my Facebook. (Tons of FREE ideas.)

PiNtErEsT:  Click Here to see my Pinterest Boards.  (Oh, the ideas on these boards!)

TeAcHeRs PaY tEaChErS:  Click Here to see my TPT Store (Did you say, "15 freebies?!")

See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)

'Twas The Night Before T.K.

Updated My Poem From Last Year:

'Twas the night before TK...
When all through the school,
The work's on the tables,
These hats will look cool...

Work is on the tables... 1st day star hats.

The centers are ready...

Painting easel covered with a plastic table cloth &
 paint cups covered with wet sponges.

Our "Five Senses" center.  This is the vision mat.

Bunny's in his seat...

Library chairs

 The Discovery Center looks kinda neat,

Discovery Center

 The light on the desk of this cute TK room,
Will light up the faces of children here soon,

My desk

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear?

But Clifford the dog...

Clifford will stay in our pet shop until we need it for our chickens.

 And a cute, cuddly bear!

A soft bear and tissues just in case we have criers.

With a little, old playhouse so charming and sweet,
I knew in a moment we could cook up a treat...

Home center.  Everything is labeled.

At the "dress-up" center,

the children all played...

Bookcase on its side makes a closet.

 And later they stopped,
To make lemonade...

Our lemonade stand.  

We made individual cups of lemonade.

The message was written,

On the board with care...

Lined dry erase contact paper on an easel and
a magnetic cork board with a giant #1 for the 1st day of school.

 And the rules at the front,
Told us all to beware....

Front table

 The new ten frame numbers look like Common Core,
And our alphabet letters left us begging for more....

Our Money Pig helps us to count each school day,

And the abacus shows us in a "different" way...

Attach magnets to coins and you can display them on a metal pig or...
Just paint a pig with paint pens on a cookie sheet and attach your coins with magnets
to show the number of days you have been in school.

And ESGI's testing file is all ready to go,
It tells me what each child does and doesn't know...

I LOVE using a dish rack for my testing files.
I test kids on the computer using ESGI.
Try it for FREE for 60 days, then sign up with my $40 off discount code:
B2174
Click HERE to see their site.

Then the last thing I did was to make this cute sign,

I'm exhausted, wiped out, now please bring me some wine!

Look through the frame and say, "Cheese!"

Say, "Cheese!"

Please visit our TPT store and have fun setting up your classroom!

COMING SOOOOOON:

Look for my FUN "1, 2, 3 Sale".

Each day, 3 items in my TPT Store will be deeply discounted.

One item will be $1.00.

One item will be $2.00.

One item will be $3.00.

Wishing you the best First Day EVER.  :o)

See you all tomorrow!

Palma

I Don't Know How I Survived Without These 3 Teaching Tips + a BONUS AT THE BOTTOM!!!

My Most Pinned Idea:

This idea gets re-pinned on Pinterest several times each day!  I use these every day in my classroom.

Each child gets their own mat and cup filled with dry erase mini markers and a mini eraser.

You can find lined dry-erase contact paper online or at educational supply stores.

Last year I found lined dry erase charts and just cut them into quarters.

Click HERE to see an 8 pack at a pretty good price or HERE to see a poster size you can cut into 4 pieces.  

Attach one to each laminated sheet of construction paper.  To keep the edges from coming up, I tape them down.  

Even the teacher gets her own mat
with lined dry-erase paper attached to it.

Now, when I'm working with a small group, I can model a letter or write an entire word for a student to copy.  All I have to do is pick up my dry erase marker and I can help a student with a math problem or anything else I might need to write down for that student.  When we are done, we just erase it!  

Last summer, I grabbed these cute little erasers at Target's Dollar Spot.  They were 2 for a dollar!

My Next Best Idea Is...

... not my original idea.  :)  It's from Rick Morris' web site.  I tried this idea and my students love it:

I hang my "Ringing Pen" on a hook so I can always find it.

You just tie a bell to a dry erase marker.  (The square bells work better than the round ones because the round ones tend to swirl the clapper around in silence.)  Then, each time you want your students to really listen and watch what you are writing on the board, you use the marker with the bell.  You don't have to say a word.  They hear the bell and they know that whatever you are about to write is super important. 

You can find square bells by clicking HERE. 

My Last, Best Idea:

Take each child's photograph when you first meet them.  This might be at their pre-test time before school begins or it might be on their first day of school.  

I smudged out her name, but you would normally see it at the bottom of the photo.

I use the same tablecloth for the background so everyone's picture looks somewhat uniform.  

I create a template in a word processing document with a place for a 5" X 7" photo, three 2" X 3" photos, and two 1.5" X 1 " photos.  I type their names into a text box which is placed at the bottom of each photo.

Now, I can use these great pictures all through the year.  I laminate the larges one and place it in their cubbies.  

Photos inside the cubbies before adding the names.

  

The red checkered background goes perfectly with my
picnic bulletin board and with my farm theme later in the year.

I place one of the the smallest ones on their record folder where I keep all of their ESGI flashcards, testing results, and work samples.    If you haven't checked out ESGI yet, do yourself a favor and try it for 60 days for FREE.  This is the perfect time to explore their website, their ready-made tests, or try your hand at creating your own custom tests.  And if you teach T.K., you can grab the tests I created by searching my name, Palma Lindsay.   Then, if you like it, use my discount code, KFUN, for $40 off of your 1st year.  I guess this is one more thing I can't live without! See the BONUS below :)

I use one of the medium size photos for our classroom graph by laminating it to card stock and adding Velcro to the back.  

Photo on the front, name & Velcro on the back.

Sticky-back Velcro holds this on our graph. 

I attach one to a copy of their name for our writing center.  Then, other students can find the picture of their friend and quickly see how to write their name. 

I stapled a couple of page protectors together. 

 That leaves me with 2 more photos to use throughout the year.

That's it.  3 (or 4) ideas I simply can't live without.

Come back tomorrow for more classroom tips.

Bonus:

Try ESGI FREE!

https://www.esgisoftware.com/sign-up?promo=PALMAWISHES

Every new customer gets a FREE 90-day Trial!     

 Everyone qualifies for $50 off your 1st year!

ESGI will donate $10 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation!!

 Must use code: PALMAWISHES

(This code is only good through 12/30/2021. 

After that, use code KFUN for a 30-day FREE trial & $50 off your 1st year.)

Discover more FUN:

kfundamentals.blogspot.com

facebook.com/kfundamentals

pinterest.com/KFUNdamentals2

twitter.com/KFUNdamentals

teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kfundamentals

Instagram: kfundamentals2

Check out my:
FaCeBoOk:  Click Here to see my Facebook. (Tons of FREE ideas.)
PiNtErEsT:  Click Here to see my Pinterest Boards.  (Oh, the ideas on these boards!)
TeAcHeRs PaY tEaChErS:  Click Here to see my TPT Store (Did you say, "15 freebies?!")

Palma :)