Montessori Monday: Working with Magnets

Activity: magnetic/non-magnetic

Age: 26 months

Materials: two bowls, large magnet, various items - some magnetic, some not 

Part 1: Presentation

This was the first time that Kale has ever worked with magnets, but he didn't need much of an explanation. He quickly figured out that some of the items stuck and others didn't. I explained that we were going to take each item out of the bowl and put all that things that weren't magnets in the other bowl. 

Part 2: Recognition of Contrasts

Kale really enjoyed trying to stick each item to the large magnet. He'd laugh when something didn't stick and say, "that not a magnet, that a bead!" Then when something stuck, he'd exclaim "that a magnet!" So cute to watch him discover this. 

Part 3: Discrimination Between Similar Objects

It's pretty common for us to lose Kale's attention before we get to this part. There were some smaller magnets and paper clips and I encouraged Kale to sort them, but Kale was too busy sticking as many magnets as possible to the large magnet. I'm sure as he gets older it'll be easier to complete this step of the three-part lesson.

After working through the magnetic/non-magnetic activity, we tried a few other magnet activities. First was a magnetic rocket ship that Kale could pull apart and re-build. He loved this and it was so awesome to see how quickly he could put it back together after three or four tries. 

I also found this cute travel magnet game, that will be perfect for road trips one day. There is a little colour wheel you spin and then you have to find all the magnets that are the colour it lands on. Kale liked spinning the wheel, but enjoyed putting as many magnets as possible on his white board even more.