Using Magnetic Letters to Practice Sight Words

Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. When you make a purchase through an affiliate link, I earn a commission at no cost to you. See my entire disclosure policy for all the boring details.

Several months ago, I started working through This Reading Mama’s Reading the Alphabet Curriculum with our 3 year old. (Get it for FREE here.) It’s designed for preschoolers, so she’s a little young, but she expressed so much interest in learning to read, I decided to go for it! Here’s how I organized that curriculum. We took a break from it when I had our 3rd baby, but my 3 year old was still begging to do “new super fun learning time.” So, we pulled out some magnetic letters to practice sight words she’d learned in the Reading Mama curriculum.

Here’s what not to do: 

At first, I just dumped all the magnetic letters in a tray.

Check out this simple + fun way for kids to practice spelling and reading their sight words with magnetic letters.

She was too overwhelmed to look for the letters she needed, so she quit after it took her a long time to find OO for “zoo.” Our preschool activities at home are very laid back, so if she’s not feeling it, I don’t force it. (Read about my philosophy on that here.)

Here’s what DID work well!

Anyway, she went to play something else and I put only the letters she would need on the tray. Notice the much less overwhelming tray of letters below.
sight words | sight word activities | sight words kindergarten | sight words preschool | preschool at home | curriculum | preschool curriculum | pre reading skills | pre reading activities

I reintroduced the activity and she loved it!
sight words | sight word activities | sight words kindergarten | sight words preschool | preschool at home | curriculum | preschool curriculum | pre reading skills | pre reading activities

This super simple magnetic letter activity helps your kid practice a lot of pre-reading skills:

  1. Forming words left-to-right
  2. Print awareness
  3. Reinforces their memory of sight words they’ve learned
  4. How to spell a word
  5. Beginning letter sounds

After she finished forming all the words independently, I walked her through a couple 30-second activities with the letters to sneak in a little more practice! The 3, 30-second clips below show 3 ways to build on the activity after your child finishes copying their sight words. Each activity increases in difficulty slightly.

READING SIGHT WORDS

FINDING SIGHT WORDS

SPELLING SIGHT WORDS

Do you have some magnetic letters laying around? For a long time, I’ve only had one pack… which came with one of each letter. Which isn’t useful for very long. So, I bought a few sets from the dollar aisle at Target so we can make more words at once.

Any other ideas for using magnetic letters to practice sight words?

Share in the comments below.

Enjoy your “super fun new learning time,” as my 3 year old puts it 😉 I love how preschoolers are so eager to learn!

oh! p.s. we’re heading on a road trip soon and THIS free printable  on a small cookie sheet is one of my kids’ favorite activities with magnetic letters.

sight words | sight word activities | sight words kindergarten | sight words preschool | preschool at home | curriculum | preschool curriculum | pre reading skills | pre reading activities