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8 Ways to Use Refrigerator Magnets

Here are eight fantastic ways to develop pre-reading skills using alphabet refrigerator magnets (with no mess or fuss)! And if magnets don’t stick to your fridge, you can do these same activities using a metal baking sheet or the front of your dishwasher.

  1. Alphabet Soup

    Pour all your letters into a sauce pan or soup pot. Have your little one give the soup a stir and dish up some “Alphabet Soup”! Hold out your bowl while your young chef serves you up some “G Soup” or “Q Soup” (or whatever variety is the special of the day!).

    Refrigerator magnets in a pot
  2. Alphabet Train

    Mix up the letters in random order. Show your child how she can make a “train” by placing the letters in alphabetical order, singing the Alphabet Song as she goes.

    Refrigerator magnets in alphabetical order
  3. Letter Lookout

    Help your child recognize that there are letters everywhere! Pick out a few picture books or boxes of food. Have your child choose a magnetic letter from the fridge and try to find that same letter in the book or on a box.

  4. Mix-n-Match ‘Em

    Arrange the letters right side up and have your child organize the letters in matching sets. For example, can she find all the letters that have long sticks? How about short sticks? Can she find letters with circles? How about letters with dots? Sort out all the red letters. Can she find the letters in her name? How about the letters in a friend’s name?

    An arrangement of refrigerator magnets
  5. Hide-n-Go Letter Seek

    Scatter your letters around your school room or living room. Give your child a basket and encourage her to say the name of the letters as she collects each one. You can use this activity to increase phonological awareness by calling out the sound of each letter instead of the name of the letter. Download our free Letter Sounds app if you need to refresh your memory on the sounds of the 26 alphabet letters.

    Playing hide and seek with refrigerator magnets
  6. Dig for Buried Letters

    Bury your letters in a large bowl filled with dried lentils, rice, or cracked wheat. Have your child dig for the letters with a magnetic wand. As she finds each letter, have her shout out the letter’s name and the sound it makes.

    Refrigerator magnets in a bowl of rice with magnetic wand
  7. Go Fish

    You can use your magnetic wand for this activity too! Make a fishing pole by tying a string to the end of a yard stick and then tying the magnetic wand to the end of the string. Spread your refrigerator magnets on the floor, and it’s time to go fishing! Have your child dangle the magnet wand to catch “fish.” Have her say the name and/or sound of each “fish” she catches.

  8. Word Wranglers

    This activity is perfect for beginning readers. It will help your child learn that you can manipulate sounds to create new words. Build a three-letter word on the fridge. See how many new words you can make by changing the beginning and/or ending sounds. Here’s one using beginning sounds: Start with cat. Change the beginning sound to make fat, pat, and hat. Now create new words by changing the ending sound.

    Refrigerator magnets spelling the word 'cat'

Looking for a complete program to get your child ready for reading? Check out the All About Reading Pre-reading program! Your child will enjoy special games, crafts, and story time read-alouds, and you will love how it’s all planned out for you.

All About Reading Pre-reading set-up

How do you use letter magnets with your little one? Share in the comments below!

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Laura

says:

This is really a wonderful idea to entertain my kid while I cook

Robin

says: Customer Service

Laura,
Yes, great idea to use some of these ideas while you prepare a meal!

Megan

says:

Great ideas, thank you!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Megan!

Tricia

says:

Thank you! We are loving this curriculum!

Robin

says: Customer Service

Wonderful, Tricia! You’re welcome.

Vanesa

says:

Such fun ideas!

Robin

says: Customer Service

Thank you, Vanesa!

Jeanette

says:

Enjoyed the Hide and Go Letter Seek Idea. Will def be using this around our home. Thank you!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Jeanette! I hope you have a lot of fun with the refrigerator magnet games.

Rebecca P.

says:

I was looking for some fresh ideas to play with our little learning letters. Thank you.

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Rebecca! I hope you have a lot of fun and learning with these ideas!

Kayla Ayers

says:

Thank you for this!!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Kayla!

Emily

says:

Some great ideas! Can’t wait to try them out 😄

Nicole Ikeda

says:

We love all the free downloads with activities. Thank you.

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Nicole! Glad you like the the activities.

Anne

says:

What a great article! Love all these ideas! Definitely gonna try these out with my twin 4 year olds. :)

Is there a particular brand / style of magnetic letters that you recommend? It is best to start with all uppercase or teach lowercase simultaneously? Thanks!

Robin

says: Customer Service

Anne,
We don’t have a particular brand of magnetic letters we recommend. There are so many great options for them!

However, we do recommend starting with uppercase. We discuss the reasons why and have lots of free printables for fun learning activities on our How to Teach the Alphabet to Preschoolers blog post.

Jessica Lange

says:

My little ones will love these ideas! Thank you 😊

Casha Guidry

says:

Great ideas!

Amanda

says:

Love the fresh ideas! My son will love them too, thank you :-)

Robin

says: Customer Service

I hope you and your son have lots of fun with these ideas, Amanda!

Ang

says:

So many good ideas, thank you!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Ang!

Mj

says:

We always seem to loose our alphabet magnets under the refrigerator but I love the ideas you share here!

Robin

says: Customer Service

Automotive stories sell an inexpensive tool that is a magnet on stick (it collapses down when not in use). I use it all the time for magnetic letters under appliances!

Jennifer

says:

Great ideas!

Robin

says: Customer Service

Thank you, Jennifer!

Jackie

says:

Thank you for the ideas for the alphabet magnets. We haven’t used them in awhile. It’ll be nice to bring them out again!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Jackie! I hope you have a lot of learning fun with them.

Myriam

says:

Great! In my classroom there is no fridge and there’s only one whiteboard, so pupils in groups use the heater (they’re flat and made of iron) and they love it (especially in winter…)

Robin

says: Customer Service

I love that you found a magnetic place for magnetic letters that works in your area, Myriam! Sounds like a great solution.

Katie

says:

Wow these are all great ideas. We love to leave random words spelled on the fridge for our kids to discover.

Robin

says: Customer Service

Sounds like a lot of fun, Katie!

Susan

says:

These are wonderful ideas for using letter magnets. We have not used ours very much. I am excited to get them back out again!

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

I’m glad this encouraged you to make more use of your letter magnets, Susan!

Ruth Lakhani

says:

These ideas sound really fun! I know my preschooler will enjoy the alphabet soup game & the alphabet dig. Thanks for sharing these great activities!

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Ruth. I hope your preschooler has lots of fun with these learning activities!

Risper Janet Ogutu

says:

excellent practical way to teach sounds and reading to young learners!!

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

Thank you, Risper!

Muhammad Asif

says:

Fantabulous . These are the easiest ways to enable children recognize letters n sounds made by them , thanks a lot for sharing these precious ideas.

Barbara McConnell

says:

I think this will work with letters and numbers

Melissa Chabot

says:

I love this idea. I think it would work great with numbers as well. Thank you for sharing this wonderful idea.

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Melissa. Yes, I think many of these tips will help work with numbers as well.

Ionela stan

says:

Absolutely interesting ideas! Thank you!

Shinae Wyckoff

says:

These are great ideas! Thank you!!

Candee L. Amerin

says:

I hadn’t thought about using a magnifying glass! Neat!

Diana Tan

says:

The different methods to teach the alphabet will definitely make my life easier and also make my young students very happy!

Sarah

says:

Good ideas.

My little ones enjoy playing with them on the fridge. My older kids write messages, and even Mom spells LOAD or UNLOAD on the dishwasher. :)

Robin E.

says: Customer Service

I love your use of refrigerator magnets for the dishwasher, Sarah! I may need to steal that idea. ?