Preschool Play with Magnets

Magnets are so cool. They are really a blast to play with! For today’s play activity, I got out some big magnets and magnetic items and let my kids explore!

To set up, I put magnetic items into a bin. I put things in like nuts, bolts, pipe cleaners, magna-tiles, magnetic letters, bells, tin can lids, butterfly clip, and more. I also put in non-magnetic items.

Then I poured colored rice into the bin and mixed it all up.

Next, I invited the kids to explore and play with the magnets.

I gave them a horseshoe magnet and a magnetic pick-up tool. They both had a blast exploring items that were magnetic. (Beware…there are lots of pictures! I just had fun taking so many photos of the boys playing!)

Check out this next picture…the pipe cleaner is flying towards the horse-shoe magnet!! Love that action shot!

We also did an activity where I put cut-up pipe cleaners in an empty water bottle and we placed a magnet on the outside to make the pipe cleaners move up and down.

Then we did a letter matching activity. I traced the outline of the magnetic alphabet letters onto the back of a cookie sheet. Then I put the letters in the rice bin and had the kids find the letters and place them on the sheet.

I couldn’t find the letter Q, so we were one short! Oops!

We had SO much fun with magnets. In fact, I am keeping this bin out for a while for the kids to explore and play with.

Please only do magnet activities with kids who are old enough to NOT put items in their mouths.

This was day 28 of the 31 Days of Play Series. To see all the activities, visit here.