Out of all the different holiday activities I have made for the children to play with, the magnetic bows and cookie sheets have been one of the most played with activities so far…
To make this activity, all you need to do is glue a small magnet onto the back of several Christmas bows. I used pretty small magnets and I removed the stickers from the bows. In the process of play, I have had only one bow fall apart…
For the “gift boxes” I wrapped metal cookie sheets (that I bought earlier this year from the Dollar store) with wrapping paper. When I first shared these with the children, I HAD to show them that the only thing under the wrapping paper was the metal cookie sheets that they play with all the time in our classroom. This prevented most unwrapping of the cookie sheets but we had a few children that just couldn’t help but still take a peak:)
The children placed the magnetic bows on the paper covered cookie sheets and then walked around giving each other gifts every single day…
The dramatic play was endless. I listened in to two little girls pretending to have an entire Christmas party. They each took turns giving the other all the gifts and pretending to open them. I heard, “Oh, I got a baby” and “Oh, I got another baby!”….
You will notice that the big magnetic board was out too for the children to add their magnetic bows on…
Lot’s of choices, lots of dramatic play, lots of fun with this simple activity!
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Great idea, Deborah! I might have to make some of these!
Thanks for stopping by Jackie:)
Anything Magnetic is a hit @ our home! love these magnetic Christmas bows! We will be surely trying this! A paper Christmas tree taped to fridge and magnetic Christmas bows – my daughter will have hours of fun decorating the paper tree!
Great idea to tape a paper tree to the fridge!
Oh, I absolutely love this, Deborah! Great way to use all my leftover bows from many years – as I like my easy gift bags now !!! Love magnets anyway – and Target (in their dollar tree area) had some really cute magnetic snowmen and Christmas trees to assemble and we have played with these on our cookie sheets, too! The nice thing about your project is that I don’t have to go out and buy anything – Yahoo !! Merry Christmas !!!!!
I knew I should head over to Target this week Joan!! I always love finding their goodies:)
I love all your bow ideas….printing with bows and now magnetic bows! You are so creative!
Thanks Melissa:)
Another great idea from you! How fun to get to play and pretend to wrap and unwrap presents. 🙂
The children loved it!
Can’t blame the for wanting to sneak a peek:) That is neat-o!
Haha – neither can I:)
Another one I can use for a birthday celebration week!
Oh – I like the way you are finding ideas but then adapting them for your birthday parties Wendy!!!
I love this idea! One more activity to prep for next week!
Yay – I am glad you will try it:)
i think that Bear would love this!! i’ll have to grab a pack of bows!
You just inspired me! I’m going to warap up some small boxes and some that can be opened. I’ll stick a little magnetic tape and my buddies can play “opening gifts”. They will be perfect for under their little tree! Thank you!
They would love getting to actually open the gifts too Suzanne:)
I tried these out with my afternoon class today and as I expected, they loved it! I added laminated cards (approx. 2″ by 3″) with magnets on the back of them and the children wrote who the present was for on them. I loved making it a literacy experience and the kids thought it was fun!
Oh, I love adding their names!!! I may have to borrow that idea and add it to mine!! My kids would LOVE that!!
It turns out that simply putting magnets on the back of my bows has been one of the best things I have done for my buddies! Who would have guessed? I let my buddies use them to decorate small Christmas tins and they played “presents” all day, then my granddaughter continued the play and it went on all evening!
[…] Teach Preschool keeps the play simple with this magnetic bow activity. Ask parents to help you collect the bows or visit your local $2 shop to keep it budget friendly! […]