Friday, July 15, 2016

Magnificent Magnet!

We love magnet. There are lots of activities with magnet the kids can play and explore. It is such a simple iron bar yet so intriguing. Here are some of the information I've discussed with my girls about magnets and magnetism:

  1. The shape of magnets: Magnets come in variety of shapes such as U-shape magnet, horseshoe magnet, bar magnet, button magnets etc.
  2. The poles of magnets: Magnet has two poles, the north and the south poles. The like poles attract to each other, while the unlike poles repel.
  3. The magnetic and non-magnetic objects: The magnetic objects are the objects that attracted to the magnets such as nails, scissors and steel ruler. The non-magnetic objects are the objects that aren't attracted to the magnets such as plastics, woods and certain metals.
  4. Application of magnets: We listed some uses of magnets such as compass, fridge magnets, floating train and scrap magnets.

We also got excited over some fun facts about magnets:

  1. Magnetic pull is strongest at two points- the north and south poles.
  2. If you cut the magnet half, it will still has two poles, no matter how many times you cut it. 
  3. The first magnets used were natural stones called lodestones. The word "lode" means lead and so the stone was used to magnetize compass needles and lead sailors home. (Source)

And we jumped in excitement when we found this Quran verse about magnets!
"And We also sent down iron in which there lies great force and which has many uses for mankind..." (Quran, 57:25)
Oh Allah, we couldn't thank You much for the scientific information You give us in the miraculous Quran! We love You so much! (Refer to this link for further explanation on the ayah).

Here are some of the activities we did with magnets.


Hanging paper clips.

Magnet is strongest at its poles.

No matter how hard Iesha tried to put the paper clips at the middle of the magnet bar, the clip stubbornly went to the end of the bar.

A freely magnet will always points in the North-South direction. 

This shows how a compass work. Iris calibrated it with the iPhone compass, and she jumped in joy when she got the magnet bar points to the same direction as in the apps.

A simple worksheet for Iyra. (Click here for the free worksheet)


No comments: