Pickup available at Museum of Contemporary Art Store
Usually ready in 2-4 days
Developed in collaboration with native Mandarin speakers, this educational magnetic poetry system combines simplified Chinese characters with Pinyin romanization on the front, while English translations appear on the reverse. The dual-sided tiles employ bidirectional magnets for flexible arrangement on any metal surface. Ideal for young learners building foundational vocabulary, the kit also serves adults seeking practical language acquisition.
Suitable for ages 5 and up.
This kit contains over 140 magnetic word tiles.
Details
Made:
United States
Size:
4.75w x 6h x 1.25"d
Shipping information
Orders ship from the MCA Store in Chicago. See our shipping policy and returns policy for details. Every purchase supports the museum's exhibitions, events, and learning programs.
Item
61097459
About the Brand
Magnetic Poetry
Dave Kapell, founder of Magnetic Poetry, was suffering from writer's block while trying to compose song lyrics. To overcome this problem, he wrote down interesting words on pieces of paper and rearranged them, looking for inspiration. What he hadn't figured into this experiment was his allergies. One good sneeze and any progress was sent flying across the room. Dave decided to glue the words to pieces of magnets and stick them to a pizza tin. Then he got hungry and the now magnetized words made their way to the refrigerator door. Before too long, Dave wasn't the only one rearranging his would-be song lyrics. When friends came over, Dave noticed they started to move the magnets around, amusing themselves by writing the first magnetic poems.
After seeing his friends having fun, Dave thought he might be able to sell his word kits at a local craft fair. He made up 100 kits and set up shop at Calhoun Square, a mall in the Uptown area of Minneapolis. All 100 kits were gone after 3 hours. That night, he recruited as many friends as pizza and beer could draw and made up more kits--all of which sold as rapidly the next day.
From these beginnings, Magnetic Poetry® has now sold over three million word kits, over one billion word tiles--growing from the Original Kit to a kid's line of kits, to foreign language kits, to over 150 Themed kits.
