Alphabet Fun with Melissa and Doug Magnetic Letters

This is not a sponsored post. I was not compensated in any way for this post. All thoughts and views are my own. 🙂

I love Melissa and Doug toys. They are traditional, most are wooden, and I love that they encourage creativity in my boys. This magnetic wooden letter set is one my favorite Melissa and Doug toys that we have. I love them so much, and we use them so much, that I have two sets! {Half of one set is probably stuck to the bottom of our chest freezer} If you are going to use the letters for spelling you probably will want two sets. I’m actually thinking about getting a third.

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Melissa and Doug toys can also be incorporated into your homeschool/tot -school/preschool/kindergarten day. Here are some ways that we use the Magnetic Wooden Alphabet set for learning fun:

1. Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching

Cameron isn’t doing this yet but the times I have had Seth match up the uppercase and lowercase letters have really helped with his reading skills. The letters don’t need to be in alphabetical order, the just need to be matched. The B, D and P all look the same as lowercase letters, if you want to be super correct just have your child match the colors on those letters.

 

2. Spelling Games

Reading and spelling really go hand in hand. If your child can sound out letters to read than they can definitely sound out words and figure out how to spell them. Seth isn’t the best writer yet, he is only 4 after all, so using the magnetic letters is a fun way for him to practice spelling words.

 

These next two games are ones that your toddler will be able to play. No letter recognition or reading skills required. 🙂

3. Color matching

Since we have two sets of these magnetic letters we have a wide range of colors to match up. If you have a preschooler who is working on spelling you could then ask them to see if they can spell a word using only one color.

I’m starting to work with Cameron on color recognition so this game is here because of him. He loves putting the different colors in their rows. He is really good at matching them but we need to work on knowing what colors he is actually matching. He likes to tell me they are all blue. Or green. 🙂

 

4. Separating Uppercase and Lowercase letters

Again this is a simple game that your toddler should be able to play with you. Cameron doesn’t understand the difference between the uppercase and lowercase letters yet but this will help him to see the difference. I tell him to put the big ones in a row and the little ones in a row. He does pretty well.

Want some other ideas?

*Have your child separate the uppercase and lower case letters and then have them put the alphabet in order.

*Put the alphabet in order with your child and then say or sing the ABC’s showing your child each letter as you say it.

*For your reading littles, spell out a message and then have them read it. Use words they haven’t read before. I find the fun colors encourage preschoolers to try a little harder to figure out the words.

*Learn letter sounds using the magnetic letters. Point at a letter and tell your child the sound. Encourage them to say it after you.

*Have your child separate the vowels from the consonants.

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