Magazine Letter Matching Activity for Preschooler with Free Printable

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Today I’m wanting to share a fun letter matching activity that I’ve been doing with my two year old. It uses old magazines, so yay for recycling and repurposing!

Why I Like Paper Magazines

First of all, I subscribe to A LOT of magazines. Most of them I get free though airline miles, Recycle Bank, or Kellogg’s Family Rewards. I know I could just subscribe to digital editions, but I really enjoy having a print version to read at night, especially when I’m trying to fall asleep.  A notice from your friendly eye doctor: Blue light from digital devices can keep you up at night (as well as cause other ocular problems).  My sweet child still keeps me up at night sometimes, so I don’t need anything else keeping me from sleeping!

I usually recycle the magazines or sell them to Half Price Books if they are still a new edition. I also keep a stack for using with crafting or as floor protection when I’m doing some messy crafting inside the house.  I make a point to never throw out items that I can recycle or repurpose.

Teaching Toddlers Letters

This fun toddler letter matching activity I created involves matching cut-out magazine letters to cards with the letters on them. I like the idea of gluing the magazine letters because toddlers LOVE glue, and it is fun to see what type of collage they will create.

My daughter’s also now grasping the concept of matching “like” things.  We have been doing a lot of matching lately because it brings her such joy!

Speaking of joy, my husband and I both were in school for forever (we are both doctors), and it wasn’t always fun.  I don’t want to ever feel like I’ve started “schooling” my daughter too early in life.  She’s got at least 12 years of school education (and probably more) before her to learn.  We want to let her guide the activities she does, and we only want to teach her things at this point if she expresses interest.

That being said, I don’t want her to start kindergarten behind all the other children, so I like to provide her ways to learn her letters that are very hands off for me.  This activity is one way!

How To Use this Letter Matching Activity:

First, I cut letters of all shapes and sizes and colors out of the words in the magazine. Between ads and article titles, there were so many uppercase and lowercase letter options to cut out! This was also a completely mindless activity, so I was able to turn on the TV and multitask. I LOVE when I can watch a girly show while still being productive.


I made this simple printable that has all the letters A-Z on it. Use it as a whole page or cut each letter rectangle out and laminate.

<Download a copy of it here!>


Alternatives to matching letter to letter include sorting the magazine letters by uppercase and lowercase or sorting by color.

What do you think?