Magnet Adventures

Crafts

This summer I have made it my personal conviction to create some amazing new things for my classroom. 

There are quite a few white boards in my room, and my students and I are always looking for magnets to hold things up. My first magnet project was to make alphabet magnets that would be strong enough to hold up papers, and also be usable for other activities.  

I bought accent gems from Dollar Tree and cut out letters from the MANY magazines I hoard for use in my classroom. I used mod podge to glue the cut out letters to the back of the gems. Then I bought heavier duty magnets from Hobby Lobby to hot glue onto the backs. The resulting magnets were fairly inexpensive to make and are already holding up papers well. I made two sets, and I am planning to use one set strictly for magnets. I am planning to use one set for a BOGGLE-type activity. I have seen some bulletin boards on Pinterest (I know, I'm a little obsessed!) with a BOGGLE theme. I do a thinkler activity each week, and am planning to have a BOGGLE grid underneath the thinkler made with the alphabet magnets. I also made a worksheet that students will use to participate in the BOGGLE experience. 

My second magnet project is an "I'm done, now what" activity. I bought longer accent gems and a cookie sheet from the Dollar Tree. Then I cut out interesting words from the same magazines I used before. It is pretty difficult to see the words from the pictures, but it isn't too bad up close. For these magnets I used weaker magnets since they didn't have to stick amazingly well to the cookie sheet.  I am going to have paper available by the cookie sheet, and the students will be able to use the magnetic words and add their own words to write poetry. I hope they can have a lot of educational fun with this activity!