My Literacy Favorites (Part 4)

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This is Part 4 of my favorite literacy tools/manipulatives.  There’s only one more to go!  If you’re new to This Reading Mama, feel free to check out Part 1, 2, & 3.

Here are three more of my literacy favorites:

1. MAGNETIC LETTERS

Magnetic letters are cheap if you get them at the $1 store.

These two sets came from the dollar store and if I’m honest, they are not my favorite.  I still use my $1 store magnetic letters, but I prefer the ones I spent a little more money on.

I don’t have them, but I would have preferred the color coded letters like these.

The ones I have are like these (except mine aren’t jumbo).  I like them because the letters resemble the Zaner-Bloser print; otherwise known as the “ball and stick” kind of handwriting.

We use our magnetic letters mainly to build words; sight words or word family words.

Here are a few other GREAT ideas:

• Exploring with Magnetic Letters
• Check out the many ways Amy uses magnetic letters
• Michelle is the queen of magnetic letters; just check her out!
• Here are some out of the box ideas for using magnetic letters

2. POCKET CHART(s)

This is another literacy tool that I would DEFINITELY spend the money on.  We use ours quite a bit.  I’ve heard that Target sometimes carry them in their $1 or $2.50 bins; although I’ve never seen one in ours.  Wal-Mart apparently carries them and would be cheaper than a teacher supply store.  You can also look on Amazon and wait until you find one on sale.

There are a million gazillion different kinds of pocket charts.  If you’re watching your wallet,  buy one that is versatile versus buying one with only one specific purpose (like this one).  The one I have has 10 pockets and could be used for literacy, math, or many other things.

Here are some thoughts and ideas on pocket charts:

• Table top pocket charts, like the one in this post–I don’t have this one.
• To display songs or poems (I use sentence strips to do this.)  Here is a current poem I wrote for which we are using our pocket chart this week:

• Carisa has a section dedicated on her blog to pocket chart printables.  We used the I Like Bugs one when we studied short u.

3. “NO MESS” WRITING PRODUCTS 

These products all cost a little bit more money, BUT they are WONDERFUL ideas for birthday or Christmas presents!  My kids LOVE them, including MBug.  My favorite part about them is that they don’t make a mess (except for the water in the AquaDoodle but hey, it’s water.)

• Glodoodle
• AquaDoodle-we have the floor mat and the one for the car, there are even more varieties.
• MagnaDoodle-once again, comes in many different varieties
• Color Wonder & Color Wonder explosion (I secretly like this one the best!)

We draw and practice writing our letters or words on ours.  These products give a fresh spin on writing.  A true story: a friend of mine had a little girl in Kindergarten who did not like to write.  They came over for a visit and I pulled out the GloDoodle and wrote her name on it and let her play with it for a little bit.  She was enamored with the thing.  Her mom got one for her and she started writing a whole lot more…on the GloDoodle.  Hey, you gotta make it fun, right?  For other ideas on getting your child to write, click here.

Thank you for joining This Reading Mama on a literacy journey!

~Becky