• Home
  • SAVE TIME IN THE ACADEMY
  • BROWSE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LIBRARY
  • MEMBER LOGIN

The Empowered Educator

Inspiring ideas, training and resources for early learning.

  • SHOP EDUCATOR RESOURCES
  • NEW? START HERE
  • FREE Planning Guide
  • My Story

Sensory Fine Motor Magnet Fun with Recycled Materials

by The Empowered Educator 2 Comments

I'm always looking for new ways to incorporate old materials into the activities I provide for my family day care kids and also for my own children. I think it is important for children to realise we don't always need new and fancy materials to have fun. I like to include them in  my scavenging and then see what we can come up with…sometimes they have much better ideas than me (but we'll keep that quiet).
 

I wanted to share this activity with you because the children absolutely loved it and it also evolved in so many different ways….and they were so proud of their end result and that means a lot.

I provided this activity for my 3 year olds but it could quite easily be adapted for younger children by using larger metal pieces so as not to provide a choking hazard.

Let me take you though the set up…it was so easy!

Here's what you need…..
 
  • You'll need a tub of rice (or other fine sensory material…will work with sand, beans, pasta etc)
  • Some magnets (I used some large horseshoe ones but smaller will work fine too)You could also use small tongs.
  • A tray for sorting (I just used a cutlery tray)
  • Some metal O Rings and Bolts from the garage…the older and more rustic the better!
  • Wood off cuts
  • Watered down pva glue and brushes
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
 
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
 

Here's what you do…..

I used my current sensory tub which already had some coloured pasta in it from a previous activity…you don't need to add pasta but if you have other things already in there no need to take them out, I'll tell you how to incorporate them into the learning later.
 
Ask the children to help you place the rings and bolts into the tub, don't let them bury them as the magnet will need to be awfully strong to find and lift them out! My girls really loved this part and took their role very seriously!
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
Then ask them to see if they can pick up the objects with the magnets. It can be a bit tricky and really works their coordination and fine motor skills. You can also use some small tongs if you don't have magnets, we used them as well.
 
If you have other items in the tub like I already had pasta you can engage the children in discussion about why some things are magnetic and some aren't and  can they find just the ones they think the magnet will pick up?
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
 
They had so much fun finding their ‘treasures' in the rice and showing me how they stuck to the ends of the magnet.
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
Once they had them on the magnet they had to carefully transfer them to the sorting tray on a table nearby (I wanted them to have to walk a little way to extend on their hand eye coordination and balance skills)
 
We sorted the bolts as ‘long' and ‘short' and the rings into different slots for ‘small', ‘medium' and ‘large'.
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
 
They spent a lot of time getting their sorting just right and worked together to make sure the tray was ‘right' according to them. I let them decide what pieces were which size and stood back as they corrected each other or changed their mind. There was lots of communication, problem solving and teamwork.
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
 
When every piece had been removed from the rice tub they took the pieces out of the tray, placed them back into the rice tub and then started all over again. It really did hold their interest for quite some time!
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com

Using these sort of recycled and older materials also opens avenues for discussion about their original purpose, how they might have been used before by people and the discovery of different shapes, sizes, textures and colour.

 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com

When interest finally began to wane in the collecting and sorting I brought out a box of wood scraps we had collected earlier in the week for our woodworking, a little watered down PVA glue and the sorting tray of rings. The old bolts and screws were a little too bulky and heavy to use for this part of the activity so I left them out.

They were so excited to be creating their own little recycled masterpieces and I thought they did such  a lovely job. We talked about small, large and medium as they worked and they told me which ones they were choosing and all about the patterns they were creating. Such self expression!!!

Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com

There was a LOT of glue used but that was part of the fun and it dries clear so it didn't matter how much they used. And of course we were outside so I didn't need to worry about mess!

Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
 
Ruby and Tara (my twins) took great pride in decorating a piece of woodwork that their big sister made when she was in school. They presented it to her that afternoon and were so excited to share their creativity and gift with big sis!!
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
It was a wonderful morning of creative self expression and didn't cost me a thing!
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
 
The possibilities are endless when you incorporate recycled or repurposed materials and resources into learning activities for children…why not have a look around the home and garage for something you could recycle into fun too!
 
Fine motor sensory fun with magnets and recycled materials - See more at mummy musings and mayhem.com
What learning does this activity encourage for your child?
 
 
  • Strengthening of fine motor muscles and control
  • Investigating size and length
  • Sorting and classifying
  • Encouraging communication and language development
  • Problem solving
  • Opportunities to incorporate counting skills
  • Basic science concepts of magnetic fields, magnetic, not magnetic.
  • Using teamwork to reach a shared goal
  • Discussion and research around the recycled materials and how they were originally used. An awareness of items in our environment.
  • Opportunity for self expression and an appreciation of the process over product.

Why not join our Facebook Group full of early learning educators.

If you enjoyed this post why not PIN IT to Pinterest.
 

A Little About Me

Jodie Clarke is an early childhood professional supporting educators who want and need to stay passionate about the work they do! She has 30 years hands-on experience in the early childhood and human services sectors across many different roles.


Jodie is mum to 3 in Australia and has already helped thousands of educators with their work through her popular blog posts, activity ideas, online training and e-books.

Filed Under: eylf, family day care, fine motor fun, frugal fun, Home daycare, outdoor fun, sensory play, world around us

« Child Portfolios in Early Childhood Settings – Are they Necessary?
Easy DIY Toddler Shakers – Sustainable Fine Motor Fun! »

Comments

  1. Alleena Van Horn says

    07/04/2016 at 3:15 pm

    What a cool magnet and great for little hands. Where did you buy the magnet?

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Jodie
Hi, I'm Jode, Mum to twins and a teen, and an early childhood educator.
I love to share ideas & resources for play based learning
Find out more about me here...

pinterestfacebooktwitterinstagram

What Can I Help You With?

Family Day Care

Outdoor Play

Sensory Play

Simple Planning

The World Around Us
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Refund Policy
  • Privacy Policy

.

Copyright © 2023 · Market theme by Restored 316