Playing with magnets is a lot of fun. I distinctly remember playing with them as a kid and how much fun they were.

In Magnetic Tubes we explored the power of magnets to move things up through a cardboard tube. It was very simple to set up and take down but really fun for my almost four year old. This activity would be ideal for toddlers or preschoolers but even school aged children would enjoy this!

Here’s what you’ll need to get create your own Magnetic Tubes:

Supplies

(This post contains affiliate links for your convenience).

• 41 Qt, Clear Sensory Bin (Large)
• Coins
• Magnetic Counting Chips
• Magnetic Wands
• Cardboard Tubes
• Tape
• Other small and light metal objects like an Allen wrench, magnetic letters i, l and j.

Simple Set Up for Magnetic Tubes

Grab a few cardboard tubes of different sizes and tape them upright to the bottom of a sensory bin. You do not need to do this activity in a sensory bin. It could be done quite easily on a hard floor. I, however, found that the bin helped to contain the magnetic counting chips and other items we were using.

Once the tubes were taped down I let my daughter drop a few metal objects down the tubes.

She even dropped a few of the magnetic wands down the larger tubes.

Then using the wand she did not drop down she slowly tried to lift up the dropped objects by putting the wand along the outside of the tube and slowly lifting it upwards.

Once the dropped objects reached the top she would grab them with her hands.

For some objects, such as the letters, she had to move the wand up very slowly so that they would not drop. These were the trickiest to maneuver up and required lots of patience.

For other objects one wand was enough to pick them up through the tubes.

For these object she needed to combine several wands together to create a more powerful magnet.

STEM Learning Fun

This activity was a total hit. My imaginative four year old turned this into a treasure hunt game where she pretended that she was ‘discovering’ the contents of each tube.

WILL YOU TRY MAGNETIC TUBES WITH YOUR KIDS? Pin it for later!

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