Are sticky notes office supplies? Or are they classroom supplies? Well, here’s my opinion—who cares! Teachers definitely have a knack for transforming ordinary office supplies into teaching tools. Paper clips, envelopes, binder clips, sticky notes, pushpins, tape dispensers: the list goes on! Our editors are eager to find out how you use ordinary office supplies in your classroom. And you know what that means! If your idea is selected for publication, you earn a $20 gift certificate!
Can’t wait to hear from ya!
Diane
There are multiple classroom uses for sticky notes:
1- I use sticky notes as a bookmark when I finish my read aloud for the day.
2- As the students read independently, they can use sticky notes to find answers to questions and tag them.
3- Or use the sticky notes to mark; who, what where, when or why throughout the text.
4- For math, a sticky note can be used to attach onto math sheet to show how the student figured out the answer if there wasn’t enough room.
As a time sponge activity for grades 1-4: Give a pad of sticky notes to students in pairs, or groups of three, and have each group find an object in the room. Have them brainstorm on how one would spell that word, and write down what they believe the correct spelling to be, for instance pencil sharpener or whiteboard. Students can then rotate to a sticky note of another group, and see if they agree. After 2 or three rounds, collect the sticky notes and create a word wall from them.
I use sticky notes for everything. A quick note to parents can be stuck on a child’s name tag especially if it says I had a great day. I also write numbers on them and the children put them in order. They love that. And they are reusable and can be added to as their ability grows.
Enveloped make things easier if you use them to put small art pieces of a project inside them to pass out. Again collect them after the activity as you will be able to reuse them next time.
Binder clips become reminders or to do clips. I put labels on them with things like: “to be graded”, “to be filed”,etc. I also label and use the extra large ones to make clippable place holders when I present to the whole group. I have even created a birthday reminder by clipping each child’sname to the calendar or other places that I need to be clipped in on.
I use sticky notes to help with colors, grouping, recognizing letters and writing little special notes to my students.
This year I started a bulletin board that says I’ve learned… and at the end of the day one student is chosen to pick the color post it note sheet they want and write one thing they have learned for that day. The board is becoming very colorful and the students are excited at the end of the day to be the one chosen for this job.
I use file folders as “A.C.D.’s” ( anti cheating device).
My students love to correct their own papers, I have purple pens that cannot lie or cheat…
I also, use paper clips for counting