I love magnetic letters and I recently bought myself some lowercase magnets and decided to create some printables to use as mats to place over cookie sheets and turn them into wonderful magnetic free choice activities. Lowercase letter magnets are so versatile and no matter what level your child is at I have a printable or two that will work perfectly. But before I link the free printables I want to share with you some of the benefits of using these manipulatives in your class or homeschool program.
- The magnets themselves give children a chance to manipulate the letter, explore the shape in a way other than just attempting to write it down. They feel the shapes instead of just seeing them.
- The trays are easy to switch out for different levels, I think this is especially helpful in PreK and Kindergarten classes where ability is really widespread but children are starting to get self-conscious. Every child can move to every center because it’s easy to differentiate even with a parent volunteer who may not know how to differentiate an activity but you can certainly tell them to switch sheets for different groups. While I have various ideas for different levels, I am sure if you were doing this in a large class you could use my ideas as a springboard and create more sheets that best fit your students.
- These trays are pretty self-contained and make great quiet time or fast finish activities too.
- You can print out as many as you want and send them home as a simple and quick at home activity.
Growing Book by Book is the inspiration behind this week’s Share It Saturday features. I’m enamored with her Beginning Sounds Pancakes, so I thought I’d gather some more ideas that help teach beginning sounds and get children excited for learning about letters. Are you following Fun-A-Day’s BALANCED LITERACY Pinterest board? Being able to tell sounds apart in oral language is.
There are five developmental levels but just because this is the order I popped them in doesn’t mean your child’s development will follow this order. They may know sounds before being able to match up upper and lowercase letters. Don’t get hung up on the order, try to match your child’s interest first and foremost.
Level 1 – Color Sort Letters.
Level 2 – Match Lowercase Letters
Level 3 – Match Lowercase Magnets to Uppercase Letters
Level 4 – Initial Letter Sound Match
Level 5- Fill In The Blanks  Sheet 1 & Sheet 2
These magnetic letter activities should be fun – and yes they really do stay on when you hold them upside down!