Lil' Smarties: Preschool Year-Long Essential Quizzes

Updated: Aug 4

As early childhood educators, we all want our little learners to build confidence, master core skills, and love learning. That’s why Lil' Smarties Preschool Year-Long Essential Skills Quizzes are a game-changer: low-stakes, playful quizzes that cover literacy, numeracy, shapes, fine motor skills, and more — delivered regularly across the school year. We’ve been using this quiz system in our classroom for the past nine years, and we love the results! It’s an ideal way to build a strong connection between school and home by actively involving parents in the learning process. The best part? We've done all of the prep work for you, so this is ready to implement into your own classroom!

🌟 What Are Lil’ Smarties Quizzes?

They’re short, playful check-ins (we call them “quizzes,” but don’t worry — they’re more like little games!) that help you keep tabs on your kiddos' progress. We like to start with more basic skills, and we work our way towards more challenging tasks.

Say First and Last Name
State Your Birthday
Spell Your First Name
Identify #0-10
Write First Name
Count to 20
Continue and Build Patterns
Order #0-20
Recite the Days of the Week
Identify Shapes
Skip Count by 10s to 100
Recite the Months of the Year
Write #0-20
Skip Count by 5s to 50
Write First and Last Name
Tally #1-10
Skip Count by 2s to 20
Identify the Four Main Coins and their Values

They’re spaced out across the whole school year, so you’re not scrambling to assess everything at once. We like to have a Lil' Smarties every other week to spread them out a bit and give our kids time to practice and master the assessed skills. Our school is Tuesday- Thursday, so we hold Lil' Smarties on Thursday mornings. This gives us plenty of class-time leading up to review and practice the skills. We typically will do the Lil' Smarties either during morning work time or during small group centers. You can pick the frequency and timing of your quizzes as you know your class best!

✏️ Why We Made These

We wanted something that:

Didn’t feel like testing
Was easy to prep and quick to use
Was motivating and encouraging for our students
Gave us real insight into what our kiddos know to guide our instruction

These quizzes have been a game-changer for us; they’ve made it super simple to spot who’s thriving, who needs a little boost, and what we need to go over again. We use the information to help us plan our small group and intervention instruction time.

🧠 But... Do Quizzes Really Work in Preschool?

Totally, but only when they’re done the right way. These aren’t stressful tests. They’re more like mini, one-on-one conversations where you get to see how much your students are remembering. We keep it short and low pressure, and we notice that our students love to show off what they know!

Let’s break down how to implement the Lil' Smarties program using the tools we've created:

Create a Quiz Schedule: Decide how often and when you’ll give the quizzes in your class. We recommend distributing a calendar and reviewing it with parents during Back to School Night so they understand the timeline and process.
Prepare the Week Before: One week before each quiz, send home the corresponding parent letter. Also, plan in-class activities that reinforce the skill that will be assessed. This helps build familiarity and confidence ahead of time.
Quiz Day – Individual Check-ins: On quiz day, pull students one at a time to demonstrate the skill. For example, ask them to say their birthday. If they answer correctly, celebrate with praise and send home the birthday certificate along with a Smarties candy. Record their progress on your data tracker and update the classroom poster to show they passed the "Birthday Lil' Smartie."
If a student isn’t quite there yet, review the skill with them, then send home a “Keep Working” note. You can include specific feedback, like: “Declan was so close! He knew his birthday was in April but wasn’t sure of the date.” This gives parents a clear idea of what to practice at home.
Reassess Weekly: Give the student a week to practice and then reassess if needed. Continue this cycle until the student successfully demonstrates the skill and earns their Lil’ Smartie recognition.

💖 Ready to Try Lil’ Smarties?

If you’re looking for a simple, low-stress way to track learning all year long , this is it! You can grab Lil’ Smarties Year-Long Preschool Quizzes right here on TpT.

It’s everything we wish we had when we first started teaching preschool — and we’re so excited to share it with you!