Brain Blast: Classroom Post-It Note Activities
Here are several ways to use Post-It notes in your classroom.
SET DAILY GOALS
Kids affix Post-it® notes of their daily goals to a whiteboard upon entering the classroom. (Source: Megan Skogstad via Play.Learn.Share.)
SEQUENCE IT
Stickies are great for constructing flow-maps.
FILL-IN-THE-BLANK
Kids complete cloze statements on a whiteboard with stickies.
STICKIE CHARTS
For SEL ice-breakers, have kids identify their favorite activities, foods, characters, etc.—creating a Post-it® bar graph.
MOTIVATION
Have positive Post-it® notes (“You’ve Got This, Priscilla!”) waiting on each desk before a test.
EXIT TICKETS
Leaving the classroom, students identify how confident they are in their content knowledge by how high on the door the stickies are placed—“High Confidence” to “Low Confidence.”
LOVE SWARM
When a child has surgery, a big illness, or a sad event, have the entire class cover his/her desk with “We Missed You” stickies and cheerful drawings. Feel the love!
TIMELINE
Have kids create a visual timeline of important moments in the chapter before summarizing the chapter.
DOODLE ANNOTATION
Collaboratively invent symbols for literary devices (imagery, symbolism, metaphors, alliteration, irony, repetition, etc.) & have students post stickies next to those devices in their texts.
PEER CRITIQUE
Direct kids to display essays or posters. During feedback rounds, ask learners to use green stickies for positive comments and pink for constructive criticism.
PRE-WRITING
Brainstorm ideas on stickies and then arrange them on a piece of paper in the form of an outline. (Source: High Incidence Accessible Technology)
COLOR-CODED THINKING
As learners read, occasionally ask them to jot down what they are thinking using color-coded strategies:
- Ask questions = orange (“Why did…?”)
- Make predictions = green (“I think…will happen because…”)
- Monitor comprehension = blue (“I’m noticing…”)
- Make evaluations = purple (“In my opinion…”)
(Source: Amy Groesbeck for Storyworks Ideabook)
ICE BREAKER
Kids draw self-portraits and post them on a bulletin board. Then each kid “writes a positive adjective describing each of his classmates on a star shaped sticky note and sticks it to the self-portrait.” (Source: Susan Verner)
