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Post-it® Sticky Notes make these Elementary Literacy Activities the perfect way for children to practice their reading skills as they head back to school.

With just a month left before the next school year begins, it’s time to make sure my kids are reviewing what they learned last school year and preparing for the upcoming school year. So far, we’ve spent a lot of time outdoors, traveled to the east and west coasts of Florida, and enjoyed tons of family bonding experiences, but can my kids still read? Do they remember their sight words and comprehension strategies and their storytelling devices? Honestly, that’s a really good question! So this past weekend, I reorganized our sunroom with the help of a Post-it® 3×3 Post-it® Super Sticky Cube to create a literacy rich environment and created elementary literacy activities.

Get more back-to-school inspiration with Post-it products on the Create with 3M page.

Elementary Literacy Activities: Post-it® Sight Word Wall

Bryce is entering first grade, but at the beginning of last school year, he was given a Kindergarten Sight Word list {download a FREE printable Kindergarten Sight Word List}. We wrote the words on index cards and added two to three of them to a word wall each week. We would practice his sight words before bed some nights, rearranging them at random to make sure he wasn’t just memorizing the sequence. It would be fun to write them on Post-it® notes so that you can arrange them often. Here are a few ideas:

• sort your child’s sight words by new words and words that are already mastered
• place sight words in alphabetical order
• make sentences out of sight words

Elementary Literacy Activities: Post-it® Sentence Starters

Early writers may need structure to expand single words or short phrases into full sentences. Use Post-it notes to write sentence starters. The great thing about the Post-it® 3×3 Post-it® Super Sticky Cube is that each cube contains three different colors. I wrote three different sentence starters for Bryce to use in his journal, each one on a different color. Here are suggested sentence starters for early writers:

• I like to _____ .
• My favorite is _____ .
• This weekend I _____ .

Elementary Literacy Activities: Post-it® Story Markers

Lydia is entering 3rd grade, which means she is now a chapter book champ! We can barely keep up with her! (This means I am incredibly grateful for public libraries.) She enjoys reading independently in bed, on the couch, in the car, etc. To make sure that she understand what she is reading, especially now that she is reading 200+ page books, I gave her a small stack of Post-it® Sticky Notes so that she can mark certain pages where she may have questions. She can also write the questions to ask later. I suggest she ask questions about word definitions, historic events, and character development.

Elementary Literacy Activities: Post-it® Organizing Leveled Books

As I wrote above, Lydia is reading chapter books, but Bryce is working on basic leveled books, and we have so many of them. The books themselves are marked by level, but they tend to get so bunched up together in our bookcase that it’s hard to select individual books. It’s great to have a quick system to sort books by level so that Bryce can quickly select books to read either independently or with our assistance. I used these colored bins and Post-it® Sticky Notes to sort the books.

Elementary Literacy Activities: Post-it® Sequencing Activities

As a child, I always struggled with cause and effect and sequencing tasks. The great thing about Post-it® Sticky Notes is that the adhesive on the back allows the notes to be used and reused, moved from one place to another. Adults can write words on the Post-it® Sticky Notes for children to sequence or kids can use the sticky notes to write stories one sentence at a time to help understand how parts of stories can be sequenced. Here are some ideas for sequencing activities:

• size order (e.g. small, medium, large)
• first-middle-last event sequencing
• superlatives (e.g. fast, faster, fastest)

Head to Walmart where you can find 3×3 Post-it® Super Sticky Cubes in fun neon colors along with other awesome Post-it® products down the back-to-school aisle.

How are you preparing your kids for back-to-school?

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