Playing with STEM: Magnets

Hi Everyone! This program is called Playing with STEM. It is a STEM program for 2-5 year olds. It is primarily play, because at that age, I just want to make science, technology, engineering and math fun!

In this program we learned about magnets. There were stations all around the room that the kids visit with their parents. Each station had a sign to give some instructions and a fun fact. Here are the magnet stations:

Metal or Not?
The children could test if a variety of items would stick to the magnet wands. Most of the magnets came from this Learning Resources kit. Children should always be supervised at this station because some items are a choking hazard.

Magnet Math
The children could count the differently shaped magnets and place them in the numbered boxes.

Magnetic Fishing
This is one of the activities that is always a hit with preschoolers. They could use fishing poles to catch fish in a pool. The fish are laminated paper with paper clips at the mouth. The fishing poles are available at toy stores, or can be made with a wood dowel with a string with a magnet at the end.

Magnet Driving
For our active activity, the children could drive a car on a track using a magnet. The track was made or vinyl. The cars had a magnet attached to the front. I thought they could use the large magnet from the Learning Resources kit. Instead, they used the poles from the fishing activity. This was okay with us, because we allow the children to experiment with different ideas.