10 activities using post-it notes

[surrealia]

Here are my ideas for using post-it notes in the ESL classroom:

1) Arrive about 15 minutes early for class. Write labels for various objects and places in the classroom and put them all in the WRONG places. When students arrive, wait for them to comment on what you've done. Then get them to put all the labels in the right places. Variation: you could write prepositional phrases instead.

2) Tell your students you want them to brainstorm some compliments. Write these up on the board, and encourage students to come up with compliments for internal qualities as well as external attributes. Make sure there are at least 20-30 on the board before continuing. Then give each student 7 post-its. Tell them they are going to write a compliment for 7 different students in the class, then put the post-its on the students' desks. They should sign their names on the notes. (An example: To Fred: you have a great sense of humor. From Jill) To finish things up, ask for a few students to use reported speech to tell you what someone else said about them (Jill says I have a great sense of humor).

3) Bring some stimuli to class you would like your students to reflect on. These could be cultural artifacts, art posters, CD covers, advertisements, etc. Put these up in front of the class, and invite them to write comments on post-its, which they will place on or near the objects. Give them time after they are through writing to read what others have written.

4) One fun writing activity is to get students to "message" each other using post-it notes. They write a short message on a post-it, then place it on another student's desk. Variation: you could put students in pairs and have one work as a scribe, who must write the message down for his/her classmate then deliver it to the addressee.

5) Write out some good review questions for your students on post-its. Arrive about 15 minutes early for class. Put the post-its under students' desks, or on the walls. Write possible answers for all questions on the board. When class begins, tell students to look for the questions and try to put them near the correct answer on the board.

6) Before class, write some English words you want students to review up on the board. Then write out the students mother tongue equivalent on post-it notes. Use these to cover up the English version. Ask students to give you the English, then peel away the post-its to show if they guessed correctly. (Note: if you are dealing with a multilingual class, you can use opposites, plurals, or synonyms.)

7) Before class, put a long text up on the board. Cover up words or phrases with post-its. When class starts, ask students to guess what words might be hiding behind the post-its. When they are finished guessing, remove the post-its.

8 ) Bring a large picture or poster of a celebrity or famous building to class. Cover it with post-it notes, large and small. Show it to the class, and announce you will give a prize to anyone who can guess correctly who or what is in the picture. Reveal the picture bit by bit, and let them try to guess. Variation: if you want to make this more fun, you can put them in teams and ask them some review questions. If a team gets a question right, their leader can remove one post-it, and take a guess.

9) Put students in groups of 3-5. Give each group 10 post-it notes. Tell each group to create a sentence of exacly 10 words. They must write the sentence out on the post-its, one word per sheet. Then they shuffle them. They pass their pile on to the next group, who has to determine what the original sentence was.

10) Give each student 10 post-it notes. Tell each student to write his/her name at the bottom of each. Then dictate 10 words for things in the classroom. Tell them to write each word on a different post-it. Then tell them to put the notes in the appropriate places as quickly as possible. Stop the game when someone finishes. If the student has written all 10 words correctly and put them in the correct places, award him or her a small prize.

Do you have any other ideas for working with post-it notes? If so, post them here so we can all read them.

If you are looking for more teaching ideas, try out this site:

http://www.geocities.com/allhou/lessgames.htm

[sita]

Hi surrealia!

Sounds good!
Thank you.

I will try it before our autumn vacation

Siân

[Al]

Hi Surrealia

A very minor variation on your number 2...

OK I've never done this with Post-Its but they'd probably work better than what I do use...

At the end of any course I do, students give each other peer feedback (as a warmer to the far more onerous and boring task of course questionnaires). On the board, the stem sentence is:

THE THING I REMEMBER ABOUT YOU BEST IS...

On Post-Its, students write their ideas about the others (there's usually some discussion about what 'best' means here) and mill around, sticking their notes on the backs of the people they've written about.

Hilarity and/or aw-shucks red cheeks ensue when students eventually peel of the yellow paper from their backs and start reading.

That's my 2p's worth. Much respec' for kicking this off with TEN of your own ideas. I'll try 'em out next week. Thanks a lot for your input.

Al

[Lorikeet]

Thanks for all your ideas! I copies the whole post for future reference. I never thought of using post-its like that before.

[surrealia]

Thanks for the kind comments. Al, your idea sounds great. I'll have to try that one.

[Tessa Olive]

I have used 2 of your suggestions for post-its. This morning I started the class having sts write compliments to each other. Nice one! And last week students wrote out ten-word sentences on post-its, jumbled them and had others unjumble them. Also a good activity but a bit sticky. Anyway, thanks for all your great ideas. They are a real source of inspiration.
Bye!

[surrealia]

Here's one more idea for using post-its in the classroom: Give the class an idea for a simple role play, including 2 roles, a setting, and a potentially interesting situation. Then call on a few students to brainstorm a few more ideas for role plays. Now give each student 3 post-it notes. Tell them to write a different role play situation for 2 people on each one. When they are finished, they put their post-its up on the board. Next, put everyone in pairs, and have them come up to the board and choose a role play they would like to do. When they get bored, they can choose another one. You can end the class by having a few pairs perform their most successful role play for the class.

[Sally Olsen]

Sounds like a lot of fun. We did the name the things in the classroom one. I wrote the names on the board as various children pointed things out and everyone copied 12 of them on post it notes set up in rows of four on their desk. There were more than 12 items on the board so some people had "window" and some not. Then we played Bingo. I had copied the words on small cards which I shuffled and pulled out one at a time, pointing out the word on the board. The ones who had "window" could go to the window and stick up their post it notes. We kept playing until all the students had put their post it notes up and the last ones actually "won". To take them down two or three days later I added post it notes so that there would the same number on each item - 10 windows, 10 desks and so on. Each student gathered up 6 different notes and folded under the sticky part so they made a card and we played, Go Fish in groups of four or five. Do you have a "window"? No, Go Fish. The student could then go and get any notes that were left up around the room. The student with the most pairs won. They kept the notes and played this for days afterwards on their breaks.