Interactive PDFs

I hope you have had a great winter vacation.  For many of us, this is our last day before we must return to teaching.  I am excited to go back because I have learned something completely new over the holiday break.  I just can't wait to share it with you, so I'm including a few FREEBIES below!

Have you ever heard of interactive PDFs?  Until recently, I had not a clue that PDFs could be interactive. Powerpoint and Smart Notebook were always my go to places for interactive lessons and quizzes. Not too long ago, I came across a kindergarten assessment freebie online. It was a fabulous resource.  I used it for my kindergarten students to determine gap skills.  I started taking it apart to see how it was made, but some of my links would not work.  Over the break, I found a great friend who knew more about the links than me.  With his help, I was able to make the new one work.  Then, as we all do, I began thinking of other ways to create this.  I wanted to make it faster, more efficient for teachers to make.  Time is so valuable.  So, I played around and made another one.  This time from scratch.

The benefit of using the interactive PDFs is that each page can be heard by a click of a button for the students. This is very nice for students with limited reading ability.  They can replay the sound as many times as they need.  Students cannot move on until they choose an answer.  Yay!  No skipped problems. It also grades the work for you, so you can print a copy of the last page for your records.  This makes it great for an individualized intervention assessment and simply analyzing students answers.

Here is the Kindergarten Assessment.  I have it linked to the original site.  Click on the picture to download.

Here is my first re-creation. Click on the picture to download.

Here is the "from scratch" version.  Be sure to check out the flaws below before downloading.

There are still a few flaws:
1. You have to decrease the size before beginning to be able to see everything you need to take the assessment.
2. The grading page is blue, which is not nice for printing.  Who wants to use all their ink on printing graded papers.  I rather use my ink downloading new items from TPT.
3.  I cannot figure out how the first page asks you to choose full screen.  I do not want the kiddos to get lost in all the buttons up top.
4.  This does not work on Apple products.  I was hoping to be able to use it on classroom ipads, but the links become inactive.  If I can figure this problem out, it will open up a entire new way of assessing students, much like the Common Core plans to begin assessing!

If you have any ideas on how to fix these flaws, I appreciate comments!

These are my new goals for the week.  I hope you enjoy using these examples.  As soon as I learn how to fix the flaws above, I plan on making a how to video so you can create your own.  I also plan on making more for TPT.

See ya next week.  Enjoy time back with your students and fellow coworkers.

Ms. Mathemagical