Magnets

[mumofone]

Has anyone done any activities involving magnets with children? I've got one of those large horseshoe magnets but as I was always rubbish at science(!!) at school I'm looking for good ideas at teaching how magnets work etc.

[Lal]

You could make a magnetic fishing game. The wooden trains show how magnets attract and repel. Moving paper clips with the magnet through cardboard can be fun too.

[FloraDora]

I think it's all about giving the children lots of opportunities to manipulate a variety of materials.

I just put out loads of different objects made of all sorts of materials, including different sized keys, metal and plastic, bolts, meccano along with wood, plastic, cloth etc.. It starts with discovery baskets when they are very young. Then I put out magnets of all sorts of shapes and sizes, so they start to see that the magnetism property is in the material, not the size or shape or colour - all school type magnets seem to be red!? The children just explore and manipulate, testing attraction to the magnets.
3+, when I know they won't put things in their mouth I do put things like giant paperclips and non sharp nails so that they can play at gathering things up. I have loads of magnetic letters, numbers, blocks to add at different times, they chatter and gain language and it usually is a great social skill activity, as long as you have loads of magnets to share. My lads had a ball bearing sculpture thingy, a desk top fiddler thing, so the ball bearings are now in DH workshop and the base is a fantastic magnet for gathering. I let them explore all around the house with them. We have a pair of really strong oval shaped magnets and one child last week discovered that they still attract through the seat of the wooden chair, excitement about being able to move the one on the seat around by moving the under one was brilliant.

Magnets outside are great too.

Wooden train and jigsaws with magnetic rods to take the pieces out, magnetic construction kits ( Maza has a fantastic set - can't remember name) magnetic cranes in the train set and building site small world, magnetic wands and balls all add to the exposure to different materials, they then discover for themselves that sometimes things attract and sometimes you can push them away from each other.

At the Early Years age I think it is all about playing and exploring, this is the foundation of Science, only then can you start to introduce predicting about materials and in magnetism North and South.

[Maza]

There is a nice website called 'Science Sparks' and another one which I can't think of the name right now. They have good Science activities (definitely has someon magnets) but also give you a brief explanation of the 'Sciency' bit so that you feel more confident and can 'teach' the children whilst at the same time 'providing' the equipment. It also helps you to introduce some appropriate scientific vocabulary - your six year old will be ready to take on some of this vocabulary.

My playset that Floradora mentioned is Playmags. It's a bit pricey but it was DD's main Christmas present.