Benefits of Magnetic Wooden Letters
Sorting magnetic wooden letters on a fridge or white board is a valuable early reading skill for young children. When children read, they have to skim across a line full of words and quickly see similarities and differences in groups of letters. By allowing the child to sort magnetic wooden letters from an early age they gradually build up their knowledge of letters, which way they go, and how they are the same or different.
How To Sort Magnetic Wooden Letters
As speed is a key element in the differentiating progress during reading, it is always a good idea to get them to sort the wooden letters as fast as possible. This is easy to achieve if you turn the game into a race and especially if they often get to "win."
When you begin the games, encourage the child to use both hands and drag the wooden letters across rather than pick each letter up and place it. This is a much slower method and does not encourage fast eye discrimination.
Start with a manageable group of wooden letters in the middle of the board, either all lower case, all capitals or a mixture of both. This can be varied from time to time. Always begin with the letters up the right way as this allows the child to see which way they go as it will be quite some time before they can get them around the right way for themselves.
With young children you can start by sorting up high for you and down low for them, or your side/my side. When the wooden letters are put back into the middle, show the child how you put the letters around the correct way before sorting again.
The magnetic wooden letters can be sorted in the following ways:
1. By colour. (once you notice the child grouping blocks or toys in this manner by themselves).
2. By size. (capitals/lower case).
3. By shape. round shapes (a, e, c, o), straight lines (t, l, h), straight lines and circles (b, d, p, q), and diagonal lines (w, y, x, v, z).
They will then be ready to sort groups of like letters. Start with letters that look quite different such as (l, a, z, m) and put about 6 of each of these in the group. Place the group about eye height with all letters around the correct way.
The child chooses a letter (eg: m) and then quickly drags each of the remaining m's down to the bottom of the board making a rough pile. They then choose the next letter and so on. Get the child to draw all the letters down until there are none left. Don't worry if the letters in the groups do not end up the right way around at first as the child's co-ordination may not be too well developed and speed at seeing likenesses and differences is the important thing.
Try our Fun Factory Magnetic Letters with your child!
This article was written by the Wooden Toy Store Team. Please feel free to use it in it's entirety with the inclusion of the Wooden Toy Store as the author and a link to www.woodentoystore.co.nz