10 Ways to Play with Magnets {Sensory Summer}

Magnet Shapes:

Magnet Chips:
After rescuing all of the pipe cleaner shapes, I poured a bag of magnetic bingo chips into our bin full of water and the girls were happy to explore more.  The bingo chips are MUCH more magnetic than the pipe cleaners so it was fun to experiment with how many we could pick up at one time, and also trying to pick up just one chip or color.

 Magnet Letters:
Next up, it was time for a little alphabet soup! All I did was switch out the bingo chips for magnet letters, easy peasy. I’m telling you, I LOVE that these little magnetic wands have grabbed my girls interest. Not to mention they are loving the combination of magnets and water on our hot summer days this week.

 Magnetic Ice:
After the girls finished playing with the magnetic bingo chips, I threw them in some shape ice trays, covered them with water and froze them overnight.  Then I threw them in our bin full of water and let the girls try to pick up the magnetic ice cubes.  I forgot to refill the bin with cold water though and they melted super fast… So if you leave your bin outside and the water gets all warm in the sun, I’d definitely recommend refilling with cold water or your ice play will be super short like ours, oops!

 Magnet Fishing:
I ordered this magnetic fishing pole set on Amazon, but it didn’t come in time or this week’s sensory bin, so I improvised with a plastic fishing poles from our little fishing game, and magnet clips from our refrigerator.  Then I added a few paper clips to some foam shapes to make “fish.” Our magnet clips are the extra strong kind which made this activity easy and fun for both girls to enjoy.

 Magnet Letter Building:
We bought these Magnatiles for the girls for Christmas and they still get played with almost daily around here. I am always trying to find new ways to get the most out of our toys (especially when they are a little pricey like these Magnatiles) so we threw them in our bin along with pouch lids and pom poms for some color. Madelynn and I tried to build letters while Aubrey practiced sticking the tiles together and sabotaging our letter building attempts.

Magnet Puzzle Hunt:
I noticed that our Melissa & Doug puzzles had little metal knobs on them so I though we’d try those out in our bin for a little puzzle hunt. I kept the pouch lids and pom poms in the bin and hid the puzzle pieces underneath.  The girls stirred around with their magnetic wands to find the pieces. They were a little tricky to pick up because the metal piece is so small, but practicing patience is always a good thing!

Magnet Colors:
After finding all the puzzle pieces I threw our foam magnet counters into the bin.  The girls used their magnetic wands to find the counters and then sort them into circles I drew on the ground with sidewalk chalk.

Magnet Shapes:
Using our Magnatiles again, I traced the different shapes on the ground with chalk. Then I threw them all back in the bin and the girls tried to sort, match and stack each different shape.