Invitation To Discover: Magnets!

This week I decided the kids needed to have a little bit of magic in their discoveries (toddler magic, that is :) ) ...

I made up a tray for each boy with lots of different items on it.  Some items could be picked up by magnets, some couldn't.

Some of the things I included on the tray were:

• Key rings
• Plastic balls
• A glass cup with cut up pipe cleaners in there (although I heard that they aren't called pipe cleaners any more???).  You could also use a plastic bottle instead of the glass cup.
• Paperclips
• Toy cars
• Pens,
• Screwdrivers,
• Material
• Blocks/lego
• Coins

And of course the "magic" ingredient - a magnet (which I bought from the Dollar Store - it was something like 8 magnets for $2).

This experiment was more an invitation to discover whatever they wanted to discover - I didn't direct much during their investigations (except for a couple of activities towards the end).  They were thrilled at what they discovered and I enjoyed the fact that they were using their own thoughts and taking risks with their ideas.

Here are some of their discoveries...

"This one sticks to the magnet, this one doesn't!"

"I know, let's sort them! All the things that stick on the magnets go in the yellow plate, all the things that don't stick go on the green plate!" This was a great idea from E, that really benefited N who is still learning his colours... Love how math and science present themselves in the same experiment!

"Look! The screwdriver is a magnet too!! The paperclips are sticking onto the screwdriver."

I challenged the boys to see if they could get the pipe cleaners out of the glass without putting their hands and the magnets into the glass... E worked out he could get out a few of the pipe cleaners without actually putting his hand in the cup.  He ran the magnet along the side of the glass and the pipe cleaners moved up with the magnet... And then...

"Look how many pipe cleaners the magnet can hold at the same time!"

"Look mummy! The paper clip is hanging down!!" Look at the joy on his face.  He was super excited!

The last two investigations were directed by me - I put the boys tray between two chairs so they could have access to the bottom of the tray.  They put the magnet under the tray and moved it around.  To their absolute delight the pipe cleaners moved around the tray as he moved the magnets around and they looked like they were dancing because they were standing up!  The kids loved this and stayed on this activity for a while. 

The next activity was a challenge for E.  I told him to make the two cars move but he could only touch one car. I used blue tack to put the magnets on the back of the cars

He discovered pretty quickly that the cars (magnets) stuck together, but then he said "but they aren't racing, how do I make them race?"  I asked him to think about it for a second.  He didn't have any solutions so I suggested he turned one of the magnets around and see what happens. 

 

He did that, then...

They wouldn't stick together... So he persevered... Look at the concentration on his face...

and discovered that he could make both cars move with just his hand on one car... Magic!

He was so excited! And little N was pretty excited too when he noticed what E was doing.  In their eyes it really was magic.  How could the other car move without touching it??

In our eyes, it's science. Magnets are usually made from metal iron (or another material that has lots of iron in it).  All magnets have the ability to pull things towards themselves.  The invisible force is called magnetism.  They are concentrated around the two poles (ends) of the magnet - these are called the north and the south pole.  They look the same but behave differently.  If you put identical poles together, the magnets will repel (push away) from each other.  Different poles together will pull towards each other. 

The kids had so much fun with this and was once again another good rainy day activity!

Looking for more rainy day activities?
Try these:
Gooey Goop!
Explaining Rain!
Moving Milk Rainbow!
DIY Crystals!
Dancing Sultanas!