Building Blocks of Literacy: 7 Ways to Use Magna-Tiles to Boost Reading Skills

Who doesn’t LOVE Magna-Tiles! They are always a fan favorite amongst littles (and grownups too)! These colorful magnetic building blocks aren't just for constructing towers and castles; they can also serve as powerful tools to support your child's literacy development! YES!

Play and learning combined…that's a WIN WIN!

Here are seven  ways you can use Magna-Tiles to help your child with reading:

1. Hide and Seek: Have your child build several cubes using Magna-Tiles and place letter or word cards on the top of each cube. Then, ask them to close their eyes while you hide a small object or toy underneath one of the cubes. Your child's task is to read the word on top of each cube and decide whether to pick it up or "smash" it to find the hidden object. This game not only reinforces reading skills but also adds an element of adventure to learning.

2. Blending Practice: Magna-Tiles can be a fantastic tool for practicing blending skills (and this is a skill early readers should be practicing everyday!). Use whiteboard markers to write individual letters or phonemes on the tiles. Guide your child through the steps of blending a CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) word: saying the word, tapping out the sounds, mapping the word, and finally writing it down. The tactile experience of manipulating the tiles reinforces phonemic awareness and makes learning to blend words more engaging.

3. Phonological Awareness: Encourage your child to use 2-4 tiles to count the syllables or sounds in a word. This provides a great visual!

4. Phonemic Awareness: Magna-Tiles can also aid in developing phonemic awareness—the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in words. Additionally, you can practice phoneme manipulation or substitution by changing sounds within words using the tiles. For example, demonstrate changing the first sound in "bow" to /t/ by removing the corresponding tile, providing a visual representation of sound changes.

5. Letter Formation:

Magna-Tiles offers some amazing FREE alphabet cards. 

6. Onset and Rime Practice: Help your child understand the concept of onset and rime by using Magna-Tiles to create new words. Have them orally generate words by adding beginning sounds (onset) to a common word ending (rime). For instance, combining /b/ with "at" creates the word "bat." Your child can physically move the tiles to represent the changes in onset while exploring different word families. 

1. Say: How many words can you make that end in at!  Examples: Cat, bat, hat, sat, mat, fat, pat, rat

2. Other rimes you could use: an, en, et, ot, og, ut, un, ip, in

(Note: if your learner knows their letter sounds then you can use a whiteboard marker to write the onset and rime on the Magnatiles!)This activity promotes word-building skills and expands vocabulary.

7. Suffixes: Choose 2-3 suffixes to start with (ex: er, ed, ing, est, s). Write them on the Magna-Tiles and write some base words on the other Tiles (ex: play, great, fast, jump, slow, skip, clap)! Have your learner hook them together to form new words!

Tip: Allow your child to engage in free play with Magna-Tiles before or after structured activities. Giving them a few minutes of unstructured playtime with the tiles allows for creativity, exploration, and experimentation, reinforcing their familiarity and comfort with the tool.

With these creative activities, you can make learning to read an enjoyable and interactive experience for your child.