Animal Magnets

K loves animals!  We just happen to own a great set of animal magnets from Melissa and Doug that I picked up on sale at an Atwood's store.  (They have some great stuff their for kids!)

These magnets are a fun way to help little learners identify animal names and sounds.  As they grow and are ready to learn more you can start talking about characteristics of each animal (ie. color of fur/ skin, tall/short, fat/thin, wings/hooves, live in water/ on land, etc.)

Counting the animals one at a time will reinforce one-to-one correspondence.

If you have older ones that know their letters you can use your magnetic letters to match up the beginning sound for each animal.

You could also make name cards to pair up with each animal.  I'll put that on my to-do list!

I made my magnet boards with cookie sheets I bought at the Dollar General Store in a 3-pack.  I then spray painted them and attached command strips to the back.  My boards usually hang on the wall, but we (K and N) sometimes like to take them off.

K really loves "ellies" and  'quack-quacks" right now!