We have had them less than a week and have already played with them 5 different ways! They are such a great addition to all the other Picasso Tiles we own, and I can't wait to continue using them in future play-based learning activities. I have a whole list on my phone of more ideas I have of how to use these! Picasso Tiles are a STEAM TOY (science, technology, engineering, art, math) and there's so many benefits to incorporating STEM and STEAM activities into your child's play. These toys are more open-ended, promote creativity, problem solving, experimenting, and help prepare our children for future learning. Plus the alphabet letters on these magnets help with literacy too! There are so many great things happening when your child is playing with this toy.
Scroll down to read about the 5 different activities we did this week using them to give you some ideas of how to play with them in your home.
Click the affiliated link (picture below)
to check out the alphabet magnets:
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ACTIVITY #1: Initial Sound Sticker Match
I took Picasso Tiles magnets that we had from another set I own and stuck one reusable animal sticker on each one. Then I rounded up the alphabet magnets that I needed (the initial sound of each animal) and took them outside with Austin (5). If you don't have any other magnets for the stickers, you could always just put stickers on a post it and use post its instead!
First I spread the alphabet letter magnets out on the garage door. Then I gave Austin all the magnets with the animal stickers on them and told him to identify the beginning letter of each animal by saying the animal's name and beginning sound and place it under that letter.
Learning to identify initial sounds and matching them to objects (the animal stickers on magnets in this case) is an extremely important part of learning to read. After a child masters letter recognition and the sounds each letter makes, moving on to initial sounds with objects is great next step. Children often have an easier time with beginning sounds in words because they are at the beginning. Adding a tactile (hands-on) element helps children develop this skill, allowing children to use more than one of their five senses while learning.
When your child makes a mistake, instead of just saying "No" or "try again,"
here's an idea for how you can help them better understand by turning it into a teachable moment.
Example of how I helped Austin when he needed it:
(Austin picks up the magnet with the cat picture)
"This is a cat" -Austin
"What's the beginning sound in cat?" - me
"/s/.... S!" - Austin
"Listen to me say the word cat. /c/ (emphasize this sound) /a/ /t/" - me
"/c/ is C!" - Austin
If he had gotten it wrong again, I would have just said something like,
"/c/ /a/ /t/ says cat. Cat starts with c. It makes the sound /c/. Now you try".
After finishing placing the sticker magnets underneath the alphabet magnets, Austin said he wanted to play again! To change it up, I left the sticker magnets on the garage and took down the alphabet magnets. This time Austin had to place the letter magnet on top of the animal with that beginning sound. This way was a little tricker for Austin so I helped him a little more.
I posted this activity on my instagram page HERE if you want to see the original post!
ACTIVITY #2: ABC Train Scavenger Hunt
This activity is a winner and takes so much time (in a good way)! It's one of those activities that will be up all day and your child will continue to work on little by little until they finish.
I originally was going to just put the alphabet magnets flat on the ground in ABC order making one long line! Austin decided he wanted to create a "train" for the alphabet magnets so they could stand straight up by using our other Picasso magnets and placing the alphabet magnets on the top. That idea was even cuter than my original idea, but if you don't own other magnet tiles yet you can easily just place them on the ground or on white paper to make them stand out more!
Have your child go on a scavenger hunt and find one small thing around the house that starts with each letter and place it under that letter. Austin found a cupcake for c, a frog for f, and so on. When you finish you'll have a really long and crowded train!
Austin had a blast running around the playroom and house looking for different objects that started with each letter. It was such a fun and easy set up and the activity got him moving and practicing matching initial sounds to objects. He loved this "train" so much he asked to keep it up overnight so he could see it again in the morning. HAHA.
Of course Toy Story characters made an appearance in this activity. Austin's obsessed with Toy Story, and the first thing he thought of for something that starts with B was this creepy Benson character in Toy Story 4.
ACTIVITY #3: Color Name Towers
These alphabet magnets are a great toy to play with to help learn how to spell your name. We couldn't make Brooklyn's name because the set only comes with 1 of each letter, but I'm sure I'll buy another set of these soon! Austin's name was perfect to make since he doesn't have any repeat letters.
We used Picasso Tiles we already had to create the bottom of the towers. (if you don't have other tiles yet, you could also build towers with blocks and place a small baking sheet or something else magnetic on the top followed by the letter magnet tile so it sticks).
We looked at each letter in Austin's name and gathered other magnets of the same color (so Brooklyn could practice her color sorting). We made 5 towers (because the A and the U happened to both be pink we put both those letters on the pink tower). It was so fun and easy and beautiful!
I wish the letters showed up more in the pictures, but I'm sure you get the point! My kids absolutely loved this activity so I told Austin we can do this activity again with sight words that he's working on.
How much more fun is this than just learning to spell with pencil and paper?!
ACTIVITY #4: Alphabet STEAM Challenge
This is another super simple and fun activity to do with the alphabet magnets. Place all the magnets on the ground so your child can see each letter. Tell them they get to build and create anything they want, but they have to start by using the A magnet, then the B, then the C, etc. in ABC order all the way until they get to Z. This is a great way to get them to practice ABC order, letter recognition, and still gives them the space to be creative and build whatever they want.
This STEAM challenge not only promotes creativity, but also is great for letter recognition! This was another hit that turned into using our other magnets to continue building a big alphabet tower after we got to Z.
ACTIVITY #5: Outdoor Letter Hunt
For our last activity, we brought our alphabet magnets outside! I hid the magnets in random magnetic places that were still in plain sight around the backyard. To play, I called out a letter and my kids (my husband was on a team with my daughter because she still needs some support with letter recognition) would run around to see who could find the letter first. I love when we involve active play with learning! It was also so beautiful to see the alphabet magnets outside in the sunshine! My kids were amazed by the fact that I had found so many random places that were magnetic outside!
This activity could also be done by you saying a word and your child has to determine the first letter in the word and go find that letter!
I hope you can see how genuinely happy I am with these alphabet magnets and how much use you truly can get out of them. If you're interested in them, be sure to click the affiliate picture link below to check them out!
Stay at Home Activity Mom is a participant in the Amazon Series LLC Associates Program,
an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees
by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
I can promise you will be seeing more of these alphabet tiles in the future on here! My family absolutely loves them!
Thanks Picasso Tiles for a great product!
