Magnet Play Project

Magnets are one of the most mysterious forces in everyday life — they can push and pull without touching anything! In this project lesson you will guess whether everyday objects are magnetic, test each one with a magnet, count how many guesses were right, and write the rule you discover.

What magnets attract

• Magnets attract objects made of iron, nickel, or cobalt — the three magnetic metals.
• Many other metals are NOT magnetic — aluminum foil, gold, silver, and copper all look metallic but a magnet will not stick to them.
• Wood, plastic, glass, rubber, and paper are never magnetic — they do not contain any magnetic metals.

The two poles of a magnet

• Every magnet has two ends called poles — a north pole (N) and a south pole (S).
• Opposite poles attract: a north pole pulls toward a south pole.
• Like poles repel: two north poles push apart, and two south poles push apart.
• A magnetic field is the invisible region around a magnet where its force can be felt — this is why a magnet can pull a paperclip without touching it.

Connecting magnets to matter and energy

• Matter can be a solid, liquid, or gas. Most magnetic objects are solids made of iron.
• Whether an object is magnetic is a physical property — like color, hardness, or flexibility — that you can test without changing what the object is made of.
• The sun is the main source of energy on Earth, but magnetism is a separate force that comes from the arrangement of tiny particles inside magnetic materials.