Bright Ideas- Post-It Races

Sure, we’ve all used Post-Its, and loved them- but today I’m sharing a way to use Post-Its that you might not have tried before!

Welcome to the April edition of the Bright Ideas! As always, this link-up is meant to help you discover some amazingly simple, absolutely free ideas… and some awesome new blogs, too!

Two years ago, my students were learning the names of the continents, and some were really struggling. Our map didn’t make it easy to read the continent names, so I made labels using Super Sticky Post-It Notes.

To practice identifying continents, we simply mixed up the Post-It notes and I challenged students to put them on correctly as quickly as they could. We called it the Post-It Place Race- and the idea could work for identifying continents, countries, states, etc.

This year, I started looking for ways to apply this kind of interactive practice with Post-Its in other ways. Some ideas:

• matching vocabulary to definition
• matching shape/ solid names to their pictures
• matching color words to colors
• matching number words to numerals
• labeling parts of a book (cover, table of contents, title page, etc.)
• labeling text features in non-fiction
• labeling parts of a plant, cell, human body, etc. in science
• labeling parts of a friendly letter
• labeling or matching basic classroom nouns for ESL students
• filling in “missing” spots on a hundreds chart or “missing” letters
• ordering the days of the week, numbers, story sequences, etc.
• fun test prep!
• and… anything else you can think of!

This year I’m really enjoying using this strategy on an anchor chart- so it can hang in our room as a reference, but still be used for practice at a center, during whole group instruction/ review, or with small groups who need extra reinforcement of a concept.

I do recommend the Super Sticky notes because they tend to hold up a little better to repeated placing and removal : ) but other than that, the possibilities for this simple teaching strategy are endless!

I’d love to hear your ideas for using Post-It Place Races in your classroom!
Interested in more ideas to simplify, organize, and inspire your teaching? I’d love to connect with you on Bloglovin, Facebook, and Instagram : )

Make sure you browse the rest of the Bright Ideas Link Up below, too! 150 bloggers are sharing helpful ideas, labeled by title and grade level to help you find the perfect ones for YOUR classroom. Read, pin, and get inspired for the home stretch!

An InLinkz Link-up