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

Teaching Kids to Go Back In the Text When Answering Comprehension Questions

Since I’m a reading specialist, I see even MORE kids than usual who are lazy in reading. When I give them a reading passage, they try to skip reading it and then they randomly search for the answers. When they can’t find them instantly, they get frustrated and guess.

Reading is hard, so they want to get it over with- and going BACK to the text, after I already read it? No way is THAT gonna happen!



My students are finally going back to the text- but it’s in large part because we’ve learned how to make it easier. (Okay, and when I use Text Detectives, they’re kind of forced to.) Here are our steps:



Depending on how independently your readers can access the text, I vary between reading it as a group, with partners, or individually.



On one side, we label each paragraph by number. (We use arrows to find the indents, which helps.) We put little brackets off to the side of each paragraph and they use 1-3 words to tell the topic of that paragraph. You can see here that the first paragraph is the intro, the second paragraph is about when he was a kid, etc.




Then, we read the first question and circle the question word. We’ve learned about each question word, so we know that when it says “where” we’re looking for a place and we need to keep an eye out for place words, including proper nouns with capital letters.



After that, we underline any key words. These are words that we think might be found near the answer. They’re going to help us narrow down where the answer might be. Of course, these words aren’t always near the answer- but it gives us something to look for.



Next, we predict where this answer might be found using our summary words from earlier. It’s not always clear, but sometimes we can clearly decide, “Oh, this is about when George Washington was born. It’s not going to be in the part where he was in war, or the part where he was President… it’s probably going to be in the part that talks about his childhood.” I have my students put a little number next to the question that shows which paragraph they’ll look in first.

While we’re learning about this, I do a lot of thinking aloud to model what my students should have going through their heads. Then, as we do it together, I say, “Where do you think we should look first? Why?”



Finally, we go to that paragraph of the passage and skim for the key words. When/ if they find one, they go back to the beginning of the sentence and see if it answers the question. If they can’t find key words, they read that whole paragraph to see if they can find the answer.

With these Text Detectives sheets, I have my kids underline JUST the answer- not the surrounding sentence- so I know they can pinpoint the exact answer. Of course, we also work on writing our answers in complete sentences… but first, they have to know exactly what the answer is.

And when they find it, they’re allowed to color the crayons (because, for some reason, they can’t stand to leave them white!)

Once we’ve practiced this a few times, my kids feel a lot more comfortable trying it themselves! Of course, our kids can’t always use these exact strategies on a test- but for those struggling kiddos especially, this gives them a process to try and a place to start. And I love that it's not just "test prep," but valuable skills for real reading and research too!

One last thing: I love to use my Text Detectives packs to teach finding text evidence, but hopefully these are strategies you can use or adapt with ANY text. On the off chance that you want these, though…



I've written Text Detectives passages for every month of the year, and you can choose the 2nd grade or 3rd grade reading level. The passages are similar so they can even be used together in the same classroom for differentiating! If you’re interested, you can find Text Detectives here and try out a Dr. Seuss reading passage for free by downloading the Preview file.

Another really helpful strategy for my kids in the next step of this process (looking back in the text both when the answer is explicitly stated, and when it’s not) is a version of QAR called the 4-H strategy.





You can read more about it here from my friend Kylie at Ripper Reading Resources.

*How do you work with your students on answering questions in the text?*

Edited to add: This post originally contained a giveaway which has now ended. Please be sure to follow my blog for future giveaway opportunities!

Pizza Box Jenga Game

You might remember that I’m subbing for our ESL teacher in the afternoons for a few weeks. She is an amazing teacher and introduced me to a simple but fun learning game!

She often uses it to review vocabulary, but the great part about this game? You can review just about ANYTHING with it!

To get started, you need a few pizza boxes and four times as many cups as pizza boxes. Some pizza places will be happy to give you a few fresh boxes as a donation, and any kind of plastic cup will do.

You’re going to stack them sort of Jenga-style- four cups holding up each pizza box. Ask a question to a student, and if they get it right, they get to pull a cup out of the stack.

Of course, you can pull out a few cups and have the tower keep standing. But after awhile…

… the tower falls!

If you want the game to go on longer, you can keep points for how many times each team makes the tower fall.

Of course, the kids LOVE when the tower goes tumbling everywhere! This is such a simple review game… perfect for those last few days before break : ) It’s also perfect for test prep in a fun, active way!

What kinds of things do you review before kids go on winter break?

Test Prep Freebie! - Reversing the Question

Well, most of you out there seem to be gearing up for Read Across America with Seussy activities all week. We did make "Oobleck" yesterday with our younger grade buddies, but otherwise, we're spending a lot of this week doing the oh-so-fun test prep!

I don't enjoy test prep, and I don't think it's the best thing for my students, so really, we haven't done much up until now. We've stuck to quality educational activities that hopefully will transfer to the test. But considering how high-stakes our tests are (without an exemption, students can be held back for not passing a 3rd grade reading test), some of my students are worried and I want them to feel prepared.

"Test Prep" In My Classroom:

• Do massive amounts of review. (Honestly, that's a good thing no matter the purpose.) There's nothing like a 3rd grader going, "What's a noun again?" in February to make you freak out a little.
• Show students the test format, and give students practice using a similar test format so they feel comfortable with it. Most of my kids are like, "Oh. That's it?"
• Let students see some feedback on their practice, especially those who speed through it, fail to follow directions, or don't work very carefully.
• Teach them about tests as a "genre" that we read differently, just as we read other genres differently than each other.
• Talk briefly about strategies for ones they don't know, and tell them that "pass" doesn't mean "perfect."
• Show them the writing rubric. (It's important for them to know how they will be scored!) I'm letting them score their own writing to see how they would do. (They are so hard on themselves!)
• I also share with them a few things from the state website, and a few tips for destressing (for instance: smiling and positive thinking are both proven to help you relax and do better).

It's not my favorite thing to teach- but I tell my students this is a chance to "show what they know" and I want them to know what to expect and to feel confident when testing time comes. And since we will be spending next week testing, the week after that is Spring Break, and the week after that testing, I think it's worth spending a bit of time letting them know what to expect and building their confidence.

This is my first year in a state testing grade, and I have to say, I'm a little terrified myself. My school has a very strong test record in part due to the homes most of our students come from, so chances are very good that they will do just fine. Still, it's nerve-wracking and I will be way happy when our testing is done.

Since our Indiana test starts with "Applied Skills," the open-ended and writing portions, we're practicing how to "turn the question around," or reverse the question, in order to help us write our answer in a complete sentence. I think it helps kids be able to for sure answer what the question is really asking, too.

I teach them to cross out the question word (who, what, when, etc.), move the verb, and switch personal pronouns from you/ your/ etc. to I/me/my. I also talk to them about the partners of why/because and how/by.

We did a game of Inside-Outside Circle to practice orally, and did two worksheets (different days) to practice and assess.

Is this something you teach?

If it is, be sure to check out this product here. Feedback and comments would make my (test-stressed) heart happy!

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