10 Cool Ways to Use Magnetic Name Plates in Your Classroom!
Sure, Magnetic Name Plates are great for creating seating charts and labeling desks, lockers, and cubbies, but that’s not nearly all! From fun first-day activities and instant art galleries, to bathroom passes and quick DIY literacy manipulatives, Magnetic Name Plates have a nearly endless number of uses! They are the ultimate classroom organization tool!
With a single, money saving purchase, durable, reusable Magnetic Name Plates cover dozens of classroom functions, last year after year, and they’re super cute, too! Sets of 16–20 Magnetic Name Plates come in four colorful designs: Original Geometric, Zigzags & Lightning, Pixels & Dashes, and Circles & Ribbons. Three of the designs even match our Double-Sided Magnetic Borders, so you can make kid-cool, coordinated classroom décor happen in just minutes!
Order your favorite set today – you won’t believe how much use you get out of them!
Name plates really dress up lockers!
- Do a Fun First-Day Activity!
I can’t believe summer break is coming to a close already! Now for the mad rush to find a new first-day activity–that doesn’t take a ton of prep or funds–to do with your new class. Why not use Magnetic Name Plates, a product you will get a lot of use out of otherwise, for a first-day activity?
Try this first-day activity to make sure your new students feel valued, learn more about them, share a little about yourself, and help children work off some of that first-day anxiety (getting up out of their seats really helps with this)!
- Think of 2–3 questions about favorites (i.e., favorite subject, hobby, or superhero). For each question, write several potential answers across the board. (Don’t forget an “other” answer option.)
- Have each student his/her name on a name plate. Hey teacher, you gotta write your own name on a name plate too!
- Then, you can read aloud each question and have your students come up to the board (in groups, based on the design/color of their name plate to minimize chaos) and place their name under the answer they choose. Don’t forget to put your own name plate up there each time!
- Lastly, have a class discussion after each question to allow everyone (you included) to explain their answers.
What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
- Group Students
Magnetic Name Plates are ideal for managing student groups: partners, flexible reading groups, and cooperative groups for learning centers (or any kind of cooperative groups). Post group names on your magnetic whiteboard at the front of the room, and students will know who they are expected to work with…at a glance. For small groups working in different locations throughout the classroom, you can also prop up student-size magnetic dry-erase boards at each group location (small metal book stands work well for this) and have students carry their Magnetic Name Plate with them and place it on the small dry-erase board positioned at each center. This is a good reminder to students that “Hey, you are supposed to be HERE in THIS spot!”
- Display Student Work
Write each of your students’ names on a Magnetic Name Plate. Use the plate to hang and display student art work or writing. Parents will be able to immediately locate their child’s work at open house or conferences.
- Create Simple Hall Pass Magnets
Name plates can double as hall passes!
There are some beautiful, thicker Magnetic Hall Passes available already for your classroom. But if you have some extra Magnetic Name Plates left over from the pack you already purchased, you can utilize them as simple hall pass magnets. Just write restroom, library, office–or whatever (customize them for specials!)–on the name plates. Then place them all together in a spot on your whiteboard. Here’s another great insider tip: Magnetic Name Plates attract nicely to metal door frames and restroom stalls! Students can grab a Magnetic Name Plate as they exit your classroom door, and place the plate on the outside of the metal bathroom stall.
- Manage Student Projects
Classroom management of student projects can get a little crazy. Stay on top of it with Magnetic Name Plates. Here’s how: if students are working on a writing assignment, for example, write the steps of the writing process on the board (prewrite, draft, revise, edit, publish). Then have students place a Magnetic Name Plate (with his/her name on it) under their current stage in the process. Students will feel a sense of accomplishment as they move their plates from stage to stage, and you’ll be able to monitor everyone’s progress easily.
- Complete Graphic Organizers
On your whiteboard, draw a large outline of a graphic organizer (with big blank areas where key words/concepts should be written). Write the key words/concepts on Magnetic Name Plates. Have students place the name plates on the board to complete the graphic organizer. This is a great way to turn an otherwise boring presentation on the board into a more interactive activity!
Who knew there were so many differences between frogs and toads? This is FUN!
- Order Events or Processes
Write key events from time period on the board, and write their corresponding dates on Magnetic Name Plates. Have students place each date next to the event. Take it a step further–have each student select a date plate from the board and take it back to display on his/her desk. Then students can research the events that took place on that date. By quickly scanning the Magnetic Name Plates on their desks, you’ll know who is researching what.
- Build Sentences
Write a word (various) on each name plate, and then mix up the plates on the board. Have children choose from, and order, the plates to create a sentence. (Don’t let them forget to write the end punctuation on the board.) To build in even more learning, use the four different designs in each Magnetic Name Plate set to color code the words by the four basic parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb).
- Make a Magnetic Word Wall
As children are introduced to new words in their lessons, it’s always good to post those words somewhere in the classroom–fill their environment with text! Creating a magnetic version of a word wall is great because you can easily reorganize your word wall (to make space for more words as they’re added throughout the year). However, if you utilize your main whiteboard for this purpose, you will lose space that’s essential for other instruction pretty darn quickly. Instead, purchase a large, but inexpensive oil drip pan from an auto parts store to hang on another wall in your room. Every time your class learns a new word, write it on a Magnetic Name Plate, and place the plate on the shiny drip pan.
- Sort Words
Name plates are great for demonstrating word ending sounds.
Manipulative-based reading activities help “lift” literacy instruction off a two-dimensional page for children and put it right into their hands! Magnetic Name Plates make hands-on word sort centers easy to set up. Just draw a chart on your whiteboard (t-chart or three-column chart), hand children name plates with words already written on them, and ask students to sort the words according to the labels you wrote on the chart. They can sort spelling words by initial sounds, vowel sounds, word chunks, parts of speech, and more.
Speaking of sorting, it’s a prerequisite skill for nearly all subjects. Sorting or categorizing is certainly key to science. Write on Magnetic Name Plates beforehand and ask students to categorize what’s written on the plates. Does it float or not? Is an object magnetic or not? Categorize critters by habitat, warm-blooded vs. cold-blooded, or scientific class. The possibilities for comparing and contrasting are endless!
Tags: Dowling Magnets , magnet name plates , magnetic name plates , name plate magnets , school name plates , student name plates
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