Magnetic Paintings

We played around with magnets today. It was fun!

I knew I wanted to do an art project with magnets, kind of like marble painting, so I googled it to see what ideas were out there. I got the idea to use paper plates from Rockabye Butterfly. We used magnet wands with nuts and washers.

I thought having heavier metal objects would be better at dragging paint than something light like a paperclip. But some of the kids found it a little tough. So I just told them to take their time and go slowly. To start, I put blobs of paint onto a paper plate. (I let the kids pick two colors because if there were too many, it would end up just being brown.) They either put a nut or a washer on their plate.

Then they put the wand under the plate and dragged the nut or washer around the plate.

The design left behind was pretty cool.

The nuts left thinner lines and the washers made thicker ones. It was a fun way to combine science and art!