The Magnet Board
If you happen to have a magnet board, you might be looking for something extra you can do with it. How about turning your magnet board into a graph?
The magnet board is a wonderful tool for all kinds of mathematical processes. We attached ours to the wall using velcro strips so the children would have a vertical surface they could work on.
As a little background on how to make a magnet board such as this, go to this post: DIY Magnet Board. To turn our magnet board into a graph, I simply added lines using tape. You can use tape to make all kinds of charts, lines, and graphs on the magnet board.
What you see on this board are cardboard ornaments with magnets glued onto the back. I find using E6000 glue is much better than using hot glue. Hot glue tends to pop off the back after some use much more often than a good craft glue.
The children stopped by the board all throughout the week to sort, graph, arrange or count their ornaments. We had so many things going on throughout the classroom that I didn’t take the time to discuss the process with the children but I didn’t really need to. The children figured out how to explore the process without any help from me.
At the end of each day, I would stop by and clear off all of the ornaments so that the board was ready for a new student or group of students to begin again. Some of my students preferred to work alone while others preferred to work with a friend. There is always lots of room for more than one child to explore the process.
I love having a variety of things out around the classroom that the children can explore alone or with friends. The magnet board makes a wonderful center that invites thinking and doing.
Things for the Magnetic Board!
Below are a few amazon affiliate links that are similar to the kinds of other things we set out for play on our magnetic board!
