Download progression document
Includes statements from Development Matters (birth to age five) and the relevant ELGs in full, for the Pushes and pulls adult led activity
Early Learning Goal links
- Understanding the World ELG: Past and Present
- Understanding the World ELG: People, Culture and Communities
- Understanding the World ELG: The Natural World
Characteristics of effective learning
Play, Be, C Units provide enabling environments with teaching and support from adults. Reflecting on the characteristics of effective teaching and learning, children will have opportunity to learn and develop by:
- Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’.
- Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements.
- Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework: accessed November 2024. Available under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
What you will need
- Magnets with north and south poles identified
- Paper clips or similar light magnetic objects
- Other magnets if available
- Brio or similar trains and track
- Hovering magnets if available
- The magnet engineer poster
Duration
- 10 – 15 minutes
STEM vocabulary to introduce
Magnet, magnetic, not magnetic, pull, stick, attract, push, away, repel, material, metal, wood, plastic, fabric, paper, north pole, south pole
Before you start
Show the children the magnet engineer poster and tell the children that they are going to be magnet engineers for this activity.
Ask the children if they know what a magnet engineer does.
Magnet engineers design magnets or machines that use magnets. These may be used in computers, compasses, doorbells and alarm systems, microphones and speakers, motors, or in medical equipment such as MRI scanners. Magnet engineers are:
Curious- about how they can use magnets in different machines.
Creative- when they use magnets in their designs.
Observant- when they look closely at what magnets can do.
Tell the children that they will be magnet engineers and will be observing whether magnets can push or pull.
What to do – step 1
Give the children a magnet each. If you have them, give out a selection of different shapes and sizes of magnets without the north and south pole identified for this part of the activity. Explain to the children that magnets are metals that attract other metals, but not all metals are magnets, and not all metals are magnetic!
Ask the children to search around the classroom for metals that they think will be attracted to the magnet or that the magnet will stick to. Ask them to report back to you.
You could ask:
- Which objects were attracted to the magnets?
- How did it feel when the magnet attracted the object?
- Were there any objects you thought would be attracted to the magnet but were not?
Step 2
Provide the children with the paper clips or similar. Ask the children to put the paper clip on the table ot floor in front of them. Ask them to slowly move the magnet towards the paperclip.
You could ask:
- What happened to the paper clip?
- How do you think that happened?
- What do you think the magnet is doing?
- Do you think the magnet could attract something really big?
Step 3
If the children have magnets without north and south identified, ask them to touch their magnets together. If the children have magnets with the north and south poles identified, ask them to touch a red end to a blue end.
You could ask:
- What happens to the magnets?
- What did it feel like?
- Why do you think they do that?
- Which materials do magnets attract?
Step 4
Give the children the magnets with the north and south pole identified. Ask them to touch a red (north pole) and a blue (south pole) end together.
You could ask:
- Do the north and south poles attract each other?
- What does it feel like?
Now ask them to join two north poles and then the two south poles together.
You could ask:
- Do the two north poles attract each other?
- Do the two south poles attract each other?
- What are they doing?
- What does it feel like?
- How are the magnets moving each other without you touching them?
Step 5
Investigate using the north and south pole identified magnets to repel (push) and attract (pull). You could:
- Use the south pole of one magnet to repel the south pole of another magnet, making it move without touching it.
- Use the north pole of one magnet to repel the north pole of another magnet, making it move without touching it.
- Investigate repeating patterns that you can make with the north and south poles- see how many lines and columns you can make.
Remember to refer to the children as magnet engineers and praise them for using the attributes. You could say things like:
“You have been observant like a magnet engineer and noticed which magnets pulled and which ones pushed…”
Other things to try – using trains
Investigate using magnets to repel (push) and attract (pull) with the Brio trains. You could:
Use Brio trains to work out which way to connect the trains so that the magnets attract.
Investigate how to make the magnets repel so you can push the trains along a track.
Other things to try- levitating magnets
Investigate using magnets to repel (push) and attract (pull) with levitating magnets. You could:
Place levitating magnets on the pole so that they attract each other and join together.
Place levitating magnets on the pole so that they repel each other and bounce up and down in the air.
The science of magnet engineering
We have put together some useful information about the science of magnet engineering to accompany this activity. Don’t worry, this is for your information only and to help you answer any questions children may have. We don’t expect you to explain this to the children in your setting!
What is a magnet?
A magnet is an object that produces an invisible area of magnetism all around it called magnetic field (the area around a magnet that has magnetic force). The magnets we use in school are permanent magnets. This means the magnetic field they produce is there all of the time and cannot be turned off. Magnets can only be made from magnetic metals. Magnets repel and attract other magnets, and attract magnetic substances.
Which materials are magnetic?
Only metals are magnetic, but not all metals! Iron, nickel and cobalt are the only pure metals that are magnetic and can be turned into a permanent magnet. Steel is an alloy of iron and so is magnet and can be made into a magnet. Every substance is made up of tiny units called atoms. Each atom has electrons, particles that carry electric charges. Electrons circle the nucleus (core) generating a electric current and causing each electron to become a magnet. In most substances, equal numbers of electrons spin in opposite directions, cancelling out their magnetism. In iron, cobalt, and nickel, most of the electrons spin in the same direction and are strongly magnetised. These substances can become magnets if they enter the magnetic field of an existing magnet.
What is magnetism?
Magnetism is the force applied by magnets when they attract or repel each other. Magnetism is caused by the movement of electric charges. In a magnet, the north-seeking poles of the atoms in the magnet line up in the same direction. The force generated by the aligned atoms creates two poles in a magnet, a north and south pole. The magnetic force or charge in a magnet flows from the north pole to the south pole. This creates a magnetic field around a magnet. The magnetic fields created by magnets fill a space around them where magnet forces work to attract or repel magnetic materials.
Why does the north pole of a magnet attract the south pole of another magnet?
The magnetic force or charge in a magnet flows from the north pole to the south pole. If we put the south pole of a second magnet near to the north pole of the first magnet, the magnet force flows from the north pole in the first magnet to the south pole in the second magnet. You can feel an attractive force between the magnets.
Why does the north pole repel the north pole of another magnet and south pole repel the south pole of another magnet?
If you have two magnets with their north poles facing each other or their south poles facing each other, the magnetic forces move away from each other, so you feel a repelling force between the two magnets.
