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Grab your Sharpie. It’s time for an easy alphabet matching activity.
I am not a rebellious person. No one is ever going to mistake me for someone wild and crazy. Because for me, wild and crazy is that time I put Sharpie marker on my cookie sheet….
I know. REBEL, right? But don’t worry because Sharpie marker totally erases.
Didn’t you know that? It’s not nearly as permanent as you think…
My act of rebellion: permanent marker meets cookie sheet
The thing about rules is they’re meant to be broken – isn’t that how the saying goes? And that rule that you need to be careful with permanent marker because it’s, well, permanent… maybe not such a steadfast rule after all.
Once I realized how easy Sharpie is to erase from a cookie sheet, I was all over it like a toddler on a new episode of Paw Patrol.
Making this quick activity is as easy as 1, 2, 3…Sharpie.
There’s just a little bit of magic in setting up this easy alphabet activity.
Materials
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- Alphabet magnets
- Giant Sharpie marker
- Cookie sheet
First – grab a cookie sheet. May yours look better than mine. Yikes. Someone put cookie sheets on my Christmas list.
Take a permanent marker and write the letters of the alphabet. Wild and crazy, huh?
Next to the cookie sheet, I set a bowl of rice with a bunch of alphabet magnets buried in it. My toddler’s mission: find the hidden letters and match them up to the cookie sheet.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy and she (29 months old) loved it. There was something perfect about the part literacy / part sensory nature of this activity that so appealed to her.
The magic is in the erasing…
The secret to erasing Sharpie is: Hand Sanitizer.
Yup. Hand sanitizer. It’s actually the alcohol in the hand sanitizer that does the trick.
Obviously, this won’t work on carpet or furniture, but it works on slick surfaces like cookie sheets (or classroom desks which is where I learned this trick).
You want to use something “scrubby” to get the marker off – like the green rough side of a sponge. Test this trick on your cookie sheet before fully committing – it’s pretty wild to see it actually work.
Knowing this little trick has made magnetic matching activities so much fun. I can quickly make a cookie sheet of letters and my daughter just loves it. Adding the bin of rice made this especially fun. We really know how to let loose around here, huh?
Will you be a rebel and try this easy alphabet matching activity at home?
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