Playing with Magnets Sensory Bin

Magnets are something my girls love to play with at our house. We have been looking at books that have experiments about them. Our library recently added a STEM section with TONS of new books that are STEM-based. We have loved having these books. The girls wanted to explore some of the experiment books.

There were several books that we could check out. We got this month’s Poppins Book Nook book from that section.

The Magnets Sensory Bin is an excellent addition to the sensory bins on the site.

What is a sensory bin?

A sensory bin is typically a plastic tub or container filled with carefully selected materials and objects to stimulate the senses of children in preschool.

Sensory bins might have rice, water beads, corn, beans, or other types filled with small items.

Magnet Sensory Bin

The magnet sensory bin is has a rice base and paper clips with magnets put in the bin to collect the paper clips from the sensory bin.

What Size of Sensory Bin is Best For the Magnets Sensory Bin?

We use the paper bins with lids for the smaller sensory bin. They work great because you can cover them when you are done.

The book we picked was Step-By-Step Experiments with Magnets. One part that we loved about the book was that it has step by step instructions for you to try it out.

I put together a small paperclip and rice sensory bin for the girls to explore and do some guessing on.

You could also try this magnetic sensory bottle.

What you need for the Magnets Sensory Bin:

• paper bin
• rice
• paper clips
• Magformers
• Learning Resources Super Magnet Lab
• Lauri – Fun with Magnets

Ways to use the Magnet Sensory Bin

The first thing we did was a challenge to see how many paper clips they could put onto a small round magnet. This was great for fine motor. They had to pick up the paper clip from the bin and put it on the magnet.

We did some fun mixing in the bin with a magnet into the bin to see how much they could pick up. They each took a turn doing the activity. This would fun and each took many turns doing it. To make sure all the paper clips were on and get rid of the rice they have to turn the magnet around 360. They also had fun taking the paper clips off the magnet as well.

The last challenge I did for them was to take the different shapes from our Magformers, and see how many paper clips they could put on them. The shapes made it different, plus trying to get all the magnets used. This was fun to see them twist and move the shapes around.

You might also want to find out the best brand of magnetic tiles to use for the paper clip activity.

You can also find magnatile activities you can do.

And you might also want to think about how to store magnetic tiles. I know that we needed to do that as well.

Then it was free for all to see what they could do with the magnets! This was totally fun to watch. They were creative and had fun exploring what they could do with their magnet. It was fun to see some of what they learned while doing experiments using in their free play plus they challenged each other as well.

Check out all the fun Sensory Bin Activities on 3 Dinosaurs.

Cassie – 3Dinosaurs.com