Hey there – if you’re like me you heard about mat man being a nice way for kids who are more physical learners have something easy and relatable to manipulate to learn how to make the shape of letters.

But much to my surprise a search of the internet revealed no easy to use tools. So – I figured I’d make it easier for people to find should they be in the situation I was, so without further ado here is your very own mat man template.

Google Sheets: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZKNfzpMh_fS1KR7MRlndqXdeOIS_u85ScEw-vUGxZ6U/edit#slide=id.p

It’s worth noting you can also save that as a PDF or Powerpoint if that’s more your speed.

If you’re not familiar with mat man, the idea is simple. You take the pieces above and make them into a little man, à la the example below:

Then you take pieces away from the man to make various letter shapes. I think it is mostly meant for capital letters, but it works for lower case ones too (mostly). Little a and e and g and q and such can be tricky, but you can definitely make all the capital letters.

If you really need a cheat sheet, see below.

I admit the G is horrid, but it works. I think real mat man has a more well rounded head to help with things like that, but none the less this has worked well for us.

Hope this helps you and your little one learn their letters and handwriting without tears, crying, or tantrums. My kids have loved it, and I’ve been very pleasantly surprised how much the quieter of the two has revealed she’s known all along, even if she hadn’t shown it yet.

Good luck!

PS – Someone asked me why all the extra shapes on the print out. Ha! If you have kids you know why. Mat man mark 1 unfortunately drowned in a bowl of chicken noodle soup.

PPS – A recent visitor to the site pointed me to a digital version of mat man they built, great on desktops and tablets: http://matmanfun.com/