Click here to read Super Cool Search & Count Preschool Magnet Activity on Hands On As We Grow®
Super simple sensory activity for preschool kids that adds a magnet aspect of fun as well as sorting categories and counting too!
My son just loves magnets!
He is interested in just about any activity that involves magnets and plays with them every chance he gets.
I was doing a pom pom cereal search activity with my toddler one day with The Activity Room and had an idea.
I knew my son wasn’t super excited about finding pom poms in the cereal.
It was simply too easy for him.
So I grabbed the end off our Melissa and Doug Magnet Fishing rods and went to work making my preschooler a magnet sensory search, sort and count activity.
This activity is so simple to set up and kept my son busy for over an hour!
Bonus, he was engaging in all kinds of learning and didn’t even notice.
Supplies to Make Your Own Sensory Magnet Search, Sort and Count Activity
- tray or bin
- cereal
- magnet wand of some sort (even a magnet hot glued to the end of a stick will work)
- variety of magnetic objects
- paper clips, nuts & bolts, bingo chips, pipe cleaner bits, fridge magnets, washers, tacks, bottle caps, mini clothespins, etc
- large piece of paper
- tape
- marker
How to Set Up Magnet Cereal Search, Sort & Count Activity
First thing I did was write the numbers 1-10 across the top of a large craft paper.
I used a page from our finger painting pad.
But you can always just tape a couple pieces of paper together.
Next I located items that were magnet compatible from the office, craft supplies, kitchen and garage.
I collected enough of each item to correspond with each number on my sheet plus an extra for the legend.
I taped the extra one below the number it matched and drew the number of circles below to form a grid to be filled with magnetic items to sort and count.
Then I put all the items in the tray and covered it with cereal.
Being one who hates to waste food I chose one from the back of the cupboard that my kids were not all that interested in eating anymore. It would likely have been tossed out soon anyways.
That’s it! Set up complete!
Search, Sort & Count Magnetic Cereal Sensory Activity
Now for the fun and interactive part of this simple magnet preschooler activity!
First I set out the bin next to the legend with the magnet on a string sitting on top.
I suggested to my preschooler to use his magnet to find the hidden items in the cereal.
He happily went right to work!
We quickly discovered that the metal ball bearings would not stay in one place on the sorting and counting legend.
So we quickly came up with putting them on a piece of o shaped cereal!
He loved the new challenge that added to his magnet activity!
Charlie quickly located all the magnetic ball bearing first and lined them up on the legend.
And of course he had to stop a few times for a mid-activity snack too.
This was an added bonus since I chose the plain Cheerios that the kids had been refusing to eat lately.
Charlie liked to search for one category at a time and moved onto some magnetic bingo chips next.
He was having so much fun and was actually learning so many things!
He was working on sorting by colors.
And also recognizing shapes.
Not to mention the science aspect to this activity!
It’s not exactly a science experiment, but there is a lot of stem learning with the magnetic focus.
He was categorizing all kinds of textures.
And of course lots of counting practice and recognizing the written numbers to match the quantity.
This magnet sensory activity was also a great way to continue to exposing my preschooler to getting his hands into textures.
With the magnet wand in his hand, he didn’t have to get his hands right into the cereal.
It’s a perfect sensory activity for young kids that still have some aversions to touching or getting messy and dirty hands!
This activity lasted over an hour and kept my very active preschooler engaged completely!
Especially since he got to touch and sort many very small items he usually doesn’t get to play with.
And supervised of course.
When Charlie finished sorting all the items in his magnet activity, he started to throw them all back in the sensory bin in a perfect preschooler boy fashion!
Time to do it again!
Magnet Science Sensory Search Activity with 1 Year Olds
I also decided to give my little 20 month old toddler a chance to try this magnet search activity I designed for my preschooler.
I of course kept a very close eye on her and never walked away for a moment.
But she really surprised me with her abilities and interest!
This was a great opportunity for her to explore magnetic items and many textures she hasn’t had exposure to before.
I didn’t give her the magnet legend I had made for my preschooler, as that was way too advanced for her current stage.
Maybe when she is 2 years old we will give it a try with the sorting and counting aspect.
For now I gave her a single bowl to put all the items in that she found.
I wasn’t too concerned if she decided to use the magnet or just search around with her hands.
However, she was really fascinated with the magnet wand!
And even when she did choose to locate the magnetic small parts with her hands, she would usually stick them to the magnet before putting them into the bowl.
There was so much stem and sensory discovery and fine motor practice for her.
She was very focused on dangling the magnet into the bowl before plucking the small part off the end and watching it drop into her pile.
This was a great way to introduce the science of magnetic pull to my toddler!
After she had found all the magnetic items in the bin and sorted them into the bowl I turned it into a baby safe simple sensory bin and let her play longer while I attended to other things in the room.
I simply gave her some measuring tools and pipe cleaners and she played (and snacked) happily near by while I got much needed chores done.
This stem magnet search and count activity was a huge win for both my preschooler and my toddler!
I just love it when an activity can be easily adapted for different age groups.
What is your favorite way to use magnets with preschoolers and toddlers?
I would absolutely love to try them! Share with us in the comments.
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