I love Sticky Notes. More specifically, I LOVE Post-Its, because let’s face it, the adhesive is worth the extra money. 🙂 I love how versatile they are. I love that you can attach them to books to organize mini-lessons. I love that my kiddos can attach them to books as they read to make their thinking visible and permanent. I love that they can help create wonderful testaments to our learning in the form of anchor charts. I honestly don’t know how I ever taught without them. 🙂
Seriously though, there have been times when I have thought, “Now what do I do with them?” after clearing off an anchor chart or having my kiddos remove them from their texts. I always want to send them home with the kids, but I worried that parents would look at a stack of Post-Its and say, “What is THAT?” 🙂 So, I’ve been brainstorming. I’ve been trying to find ways to make this process work better for me. Enter… sticky note jot spots!
I just created documents to help organize our Post-It collections. I don’t plan on using them all of the time, but I do plan on utilizing them pretty often. 🙂 They will give sticky notes a home once they are removed from books and other surfaces. They will help the kiddos understand what I want them to do, and they will help parents understand the significance of the Post-Its that find their way home. I am SO excited to share this with you. Hopefully it can help you too! 🙂 If you are interested, you can check out the Sticky Note Jot Spots HERE!
I took a few “action shots” to try this out, because I wanted to make sure that the squares were big enough to use with different Post-It varieties! As you can see below, this works well with different sizes and shapes. I plan on printing the black and white copies for whole group instruction, and I plan on printing the colored copies on cardstock and laminating them to use with small groups. I will be starting this on MONDAY!!!! Yay!!!!! 🙂
In other news, I wanted to share a few quick activities for my Reading Street friends. We finished up “Wings” last week. Since we were focusing on vivid words during writing, I read “The Boy Who Loved Words” and sent the kiddos on a word hunt. I had them look in books, read the room, and look in dictionaries for words that spoke to them. They recorded their words on hearts that also reinforced symmetry (since I know my teacher partner has been working on geometry). Then we created a big anchor chart together, and the kiddos created rainbow clouds with seven of their favorite vivid words on the strips! (I was inspired by Reagan Tunstall’s Rainbow Name-bow craftivity.)
Have a great weekend, friends! Enjoy some YOU TIME!!!!
LOVE the vivid-word mobiles! When I taught Spanish, we did something similar with action verb conjugations. Thanks for the FUN memory!!
Barbara
I love all of your ideas. Se creative!
Love these ideas!
I love using stickies as much as they do! Have you seen the writing ones on writing fix.com? You would LOVE them!! Oh, and those hand signals are so cute! hehe!
Rachel
*LOVE* the sticky note ideas! We use them all the time and I'm always wondering what parents must think when they take them home. My fingers are always crossed that students will be able to share what we used them for, lol! Great idea! =)
Tanya
A+ Firsties
BRILLIANT idea, especially for the little older ones…LOVE it!
Amy Howbert
Little Miss Organized
amyhowbert1@gmail.com
Too funny! We were working on questioning using sticky notes this past week and I was just thinking…rather than throw them away, how can we "keep" them to help remind us of the importance of questions plus share them with others. As usual you came through and gave me an answer to my question! Thanks Amanda!
Nancy
Such a great idea! This will be a great addition to my ELA instruction in my 4th grade room. Thanks
-Courtney
http://2ndgradesnapshots.blogspot.com/
This is such a fantastic idea, Amanda! We use sticky notes all the time with our anchor charts and I'm always looking for new ways to use them. (I have a secret addiction to collecting them!) I love all the strategies that you've included! I'll be starting lit. circles soon and these will be perfect to help parents understand what I'm asking kids to do while reading at home as well as in our groups in class.
Have you seen the new removable glue sticks that turn anything into a sticky note? I found them at Office Depot. Oh, happy day!
Linda
AroundtheKampfire
Linda,
I am secretly addicted to those glue sticks. It's ridiculous. I love them! I think they made them with teachers in mind!
❁ Kate
Purely Paperless
LOVE this idea! I am excited to check it out further over my little mini-spring break. You always have such great resources, so I know this won't disappoint! I always use sticky notes in my guided reading groups and this looks like the perfect way to keep them organized.
Awesome!
❁ Kate
Purely Paperless