Children's Learning Activities: Valentine Magnets

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This blog is here for you to find fun learning activities to do with your children. We share great ideas we find and love on the Internet, as well as ideas we come up with on our own! We also like to share resources we find helpful.

To find ideas for your child, click on the age range blog label or on the theme/topic you are looking for (on the left side of the page). In each post, we try to list optimal age ranges for the activity, but you must judge for yourself if it is appropriate for your child. When you try an activity out, please comment and let us (and everyone else) know how your child liked it!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Valentine Magnets

You may have seen these around...they were quite popular around here about 4 years ago. We were learning about magnets a couple of weeks ago and I thought this would be a fun thing for my 5 and 3 year old to do.

AGE RANGE

Probably 3 or older is best. Kids, and grown ups, of all ages can enjoy this. Some 2 year olds might be able to do it (with lots of help). I decided my 21 month old was too young for this, especially because I knew my 3 year old might need a lot of help.

SUPPLIES

Gems (used often in flower arrangements. I found the bigger ones at Michaels).
Magnets (small, round magnets that can hide on the back.
Paper (we used Valentine scrapbook paper as well as plain paper to write on)
Pencil
Scissors
Decoupage or Mod podge
Foam brush
Hot glue gun (to be used by you only!)

ACTIVITY

Give your child a paper and a pencil.
Give your child the gem to trace onto a piece of paper.
Have your child cut the circle out. The nice thing is this doesn't have to be perfect.
Have your child use the foam brush to put the glue on the flat side of the gem.
Have your child put the paper on the gem so it can be seen from the front.
Have your child put another layer of glue on the back of the paper.
Let dry. It will take some time, so clean up, take a nap, play....whatever.
Once dry, use a glue gun to glue magnet onto the back of the paper. Let dry.
Put it on the fridge!

You can do this for any holiday or any other reason you want to! You could do the child's name to hold up pictures the child made, letters, numbers, shapes...endless possibilities! You can write on the circle, draw pictures, use stickers...lots of fun.