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 magnetic letters 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 magnetic letters sheets that best fit your students.
- These self-contained trays 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.
Magnetic Letters Printables
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 magnetic letters. Don’t get hung up on the order, try to match your child’s interest first and foremost.
Level 1 – Color Sort Magentic Letters.
Level 2 – Match Lowercase Letters Using Magnetic Letters
Printable for 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!
Linda says
Love your ideas for printable sheets to use on trays. Am a first time grandma of a two yr old, and retired elem teacher.
Allison McDonald says
Thank you so much! Enjoy your time with your grandchild!
Happy Home Fairy says
This is great. Thank you!
Katherine says
I LOVE this!! This is exactly what I am looking for to do with my 3yo. I’m working with her on her letters, but I don’t want her to use electronic learning tools. Thanks for these printables!!!
Dhara says
Lovely ideas….thank you for sharing
Felicia says
Where did you find your magnets? I love that they’re all different colors and they’re plastic!
Allison McDonald says
I got them here : (affiliate) —> http://amzn.to/2gCQEa1 🙂
Maria says
Do you laminate the pages?
Thank you!
Allison McDonald says
I do not because some magnets (especially ones safe for young kids) won’t be strong enough to stick through the lamination, but you can print of as many as you would like from here if they get ratty!
j says
for Allison: Thumbs ups.Good stuff!
for Maria: you could try using display letters from $Tree, Michael’s, ??? and put double sided tape on back. May have to use a couple of layers. Works for awhile. If you have a Hobby Lobby, they have quite a selection of letters.
for anyone interested: if you need to conserve a bit, use page protectors for full sheets that things are put on or drawn on. You can save a couple more pennies by putting two sheets into the heavier laminating pouches. When you cut the edges off you have two laminated sheets which are sturdy enough for most uses. Also you seldom need to precut before laminating. Save a little time do it once after laminating.
Donna says
This just showed on my Pinterest email this morning. What a great idea – thank you for sharing this with us. My grand children are being homeschooled and I know two of them will love this.
sarah says
I also found ABC magnetic letters at the Dollar Tree. Toy section! The cookie trays are there too! I teach 1st grade and this tool has been a great activity. Just printed the worksheets and plan to use them immediately. Great resource!
Vaishali says
Such an amazing ideas……just loved it!
However I could not find the link for download.
Can you pls help me with this?
Thanks
Vaishali
Anna says
Thank You for printables. You cannot do all and do not need to do all by yourself and it is nice to see, if inspired and willing to share, it is also appreciated and taken with gratefulness.
AnnaR
Caron says
How do I get the free letter magnet printables.
Sydney says
Thank you so much for sharing!! This is such a great quiet time activity and cannot wait to use it in my classroom ((:
Allison McDonald says
I hope it’s a hit!