Magic Magnets

We have learned a little bit about magnets with Rocket Ryan this year and we've also learned a little bit about force and motion. Last week we learned how these two things go together. 

To get started, I put a whole bunch of different things on the tables for the children to explore. They had scissors, tuna cans, coins, batteries, erasers, crayons, paper, aluminum foil, paperclips, and staples. 

By the way, these 1$ seasonal chip and dip plates from Wal Mart are life savers! I use them for snacks, crafts, experiments, you name it! 

Before they could dig in to all of the fun stuff, they had to look at it or touch it and decide whether or not they thought that it would be magnetic. We talked about predicting again and that sometimes what we think might happen might not actually happen. I emphasized again that it's ok to predict something and not get it "right". To help them remember, we used pens this time! We talked about how when you don't predict the right thing you are learning about what really happens and making great observations. 

After we made our predictions, I let the kids just dig in and try out their stuff. They had to record whether or not the item was magnetic and whether or not their prediction was correct. 

After everyone had a chance to try everything out we discussed what we found. We talked about what surprised us. We learned that most of us (including me until Mrs. Smith taught me better!) thought that anything that was metal would be magnetic. The children shared that they thought that the coins would be magnetic and they were surprised when they weren't. They also didn't really expect the battery to be magnetic, but it was. I explained to them that even I thought that anything metal was magnetic for the longest time and that now I know the saying "Magnets inc." (Thank you Mrs. Smith!). Only items that have iron, nickel, or cobalt are actually magnetic. I loved having this conversation with them and showing them that even adults sometimes don't know everything and have misconceptions about the world around us! I also loved having them share the things they didn't understand so that we could learn why we weren't correct. 

Afterwards, we joined back up and group and learned how magnets can make an invisible force. We remember that a force is a push or a pull and while we were working some of the children noticed that magnets "pull" on magnetic objects and attract objects to themselves. 

I gave each partner pair magnets and had them try to put them together. When we put the different poles together we noticed that the magnets attracted or pulled toward one another. 

Then I had one child flip their magnet over and try again. That's when we realized that magnets can actually "push" as well! 

 

Here's a fun magnet trick! Magic Magnets! I showed the children how magnets with like poles will push away from each other like magic!