Brilliant Ways to Teach Math with Sticky Notes

Back to school season is upon us, and that means one very important thing: back to school sales. I am a huge school supply junkie and get so excited about the deals this time of year! Even though I’m no longer teaching in the classroom, I still stock up on things like pencils, paper, notebooks, sharpie markers, etc. But one of my favorite supplies? Sticky notes. I’m completely aware of the fact that I have more than I could ever possibly need or use, and yet, I inevitably purchase more anyway. If you’re like me, and love sticky notes, I’m here to share some fresh and new ways to use them, and affirm your sticky addiction with brilliant ways to teach math with sticky notes!

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Fun Ways to Teach Math with Sticky Notes:

Use sticky notes of various sizes to teach and explore place value

Have fun building numbers in expanded form and layering them using sticky notes! This can be a helpful visual for students who are struggling to understand place value.

More place value resources:

• Learning place value with “Sir Cumference”
• Place value puzzles
• Books to teach place value and large numbers

Create a simple “I have, who has…?” game

Need a quick review of a specific math concept? Write out the problems on sticky notes and hand out to students.

Start with the first sticky saying something like, “Who has 6×9?”

The next would then say “54. Who has 12×8?” etc. Write out as many as you like, and the last note would simply have a solution without a new question.

This is similar to this activity with LEGO Duplo bricks.

Practice graphing ordered pairs

Create a large coordinate plane, either on a tile floor or on your white board and write out ordered pairs on sticky notes.

Give each student an ordered pair and have them correctly graph it on the coordinate plane by sticking it in the correct place.

Place fractions on a number line

Similarly, draw or create a large number line on the floor or white board. Give each student a sticky note with a fraction on it and have them correctly place the fraction on the number line.

For younger students, you may want to have “benchmark” fractions on the number line already, to help them compare fractions. For example, mark 0, 1/2 and 1 on the number line before they start.

More fraction practice:

• Fraction puzzles
• Apple fractions matching game
• Best books to teach fractions

Practice Vocabulary Sorts

If your kids have trouble keeping all the math specific vocabulary straight, write out all the words you want to focus on on individual sticky notes. Write the categories they belong to on the white board or pieces of paper. Then have students sort the sticky notes into the appropriate category.

For example, you may want to compare words that mean addition versus subtraction.

You could write words such as altogether, in total, sum, plus, difference, how much more, less, etc. on sticky notes.

Then have your kids stick the notes under either addition or subtraction.

More math vocabulary resources:

• The importance of vocabulary
• 4 reasons to teach math vocabulary
• Applying literacy strategies to math instruction

Plus, try one of these other fun ideas from around the web! 🙂

Try this simple counting game from Mom Inspired Life.

Make a fact family neighborhood to practice number bonds.

Make your own sudoku puzzle with sticky notes.

Practice rounding with sticky notes.

Practice making ten with sticky notes (this is such an important skill!)

Play “Can You Make It?” a unique math challenge.

Hopefully this has given you not only some great ideas for putting all those sticky notes to good use, but also some fun math teaching ideas for the upcoming school year!

What would you add? What’s your favorite way to teach or review math using sticky notes?

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Love hands on, visual models for teaching math? You will love Hands On Fractions! This resource book explores TONS of fraction concepts with rulers and paper folding.

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Looking for more back to school math fun? Check out this Apple Tree About Me math activity!