Magnetic Letters: A Mighty Literacy Tool

If you teach in the primary grades, it is essential that you have enough sets of magnetic letters and magnetic boards for a small group of students. This is a tool that I use almost daily in my reading small groups. You can do so many quick, meaningful actvities by having students use magnetic letters!

By using magnetic letters you are supporting students learning in decoding, which is one of the strands on Scarborough’s reading rope. If you are unfamiliar with Scarborough’s reading rope, it is a visual that shows all the skills a child needs that together will lead that child to become a proficient reader.

Now, I am going to share how I use magnetic letters to support my students that are learning to read.

Nonreader Activities

1. Mix-up the letters of the alphabet on the board and have students put them in the correct order. If students are not able to complete this task yet, it can be made easier by writing the letters on the boards and having students match them.

2. Students can sort letters by attributes. You can have students sort the letters by different attributes to see similarities and differences between letters. For example, sort by curved and straight, letters with tails or no tails, letters with dots etc.

3. You can say a letter name or a sound and have the student move the correct letter to the bottom of their board. You could, also, do this with words and have students listen for a specific sound (beginning, middle, or end).

Beginning Reader Activities

1. Students can build words. Start with c-v-c words and, then, you can move on to more advanced words. Plan your words ahead of time, so you can make sure you have only one of each letter in a word. I sometimes make this mistake, even with planning 😉.

2. You can work on substitutions. Have students build a word and then change it to a new word that changes only one sound at a time. Then, the student will change the letter to the new letter that makes the sound s/he heard. Start with beginning sounds only, then you can move to more advanced skills by changing the end sound, medial sound, or a mixture. Again, this requires some advance planning. There are word ladder lists available online that you can print and use with this activity. Check out these free word ladder lists from Teaching with Jillian Starr.

3. Magnetic letters can be used for sight word practice much in the same way as building words in the first activity.

Other Uses for Magnetic Letters and Boards

Magnetic letters can be used for more than small group activities. If you have a class set, you can use them during whole group to do some of the same activities listed above. If not, you could use them in an independent center. Did I mention, using magnetic letters strenghtens fine motor skills? Check out my post on 7 Materials to Strengthen Fine Motor Skills to read more about the importance of developing these skills!

Furthermore, there are other uses for the magnetic board. You could get magnetic pieces, such as circles. Those magnets can be used on the board for phonemic awareness activities. Magnetic circles, or other shapes, can be placed on the board for each word heard in a sentence, each syllable of a word, or each sound.

And if your magnetic boards double as a whiteboard, score! I use small whiteboards in my classroom ALL THE TIME! These can be used small group and whole group. Any subject. The only issue you will have is having a place to store the magnetic letters when not in use. Students could have a small plastic container with a lid to keep them in or a zip top bag will do.

When purchasing magnetic letters, I prefer the small tiled ones. They take up less space on a board, so the students have room at the bottom to do their word building activities. I’ve never had a whole class set and as a reading interventionist I don’t need one. So, these magnet boards are kept with the letters on them in the correct order on a shelf near my table for easy access. You could do the same in your classroom. I am, also, sure to have extra letters on hand. It’s good to be prepared for when a letter turns up missing.

Below are a couple of great options for purchasing magnetic letters and boards. However see if you can get your school to purchase them for you or include them on a Donor’s Choose project, if you don’t already have them in your classroom. Sometimes there is money left in the budget for a purchase just like this. If you use Donor’s Choose, please use my referral link: http://share.donorschoose.org/6hT72N Let me know in the comments how you plan to use magnetic letters in your classroom! I am always looking for new ideas to add to my toolbox!