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How to Make Kids' Toys With Magnets

Magnets provide easy entertainment for children. Depending on how you place them, they can either pull together or push apart, leaving a young child to marvel at their behavior. You can channel this fascination into a fun learning experience. Using two magnets, a straw and a drawing of a bouncing animal, you can teach a child about magnets and animals at the same time.

Things You'll Need

1 x 3-inch sheet of paper
Coloring utensils
Medium-size flexible drinking straws
2 ring magnets, 1 1/8-inch diameter
Scissors
Scotch tape

Instructions

- 1
  Draw a bouncing animal on a sheet of paper, 1 inch wide by 3 inches tall. Frogs, kangaroos and rabbits are good examples. Color your drawing.
- 2
  Hold a medium-sized flexible drinking straw upside down and slide a ring magnet around it. If the magnet doesn't rest perpendicular to the surface when you stand the straw on it, remove it from the straw. Use scissors to cut another straw lengthwise and place it around the first straw. Replace the magnet on the straw.
- 3
  Slide the second magnet onto the straw. If it doesn't repel the first magnet, remove it from the straw, flip it over and replace it on the straw.
- 4
  Stick a 3.5-inch piece of scotch tape across the bottom of the animal drawing. Tape the drawing around the second magnet on the straw.
- 5
  Wrap tape around the top of the straw to increase its circumference. This is to prevent the magnets from sliding off.
- 6
  Move the straw up and down to bring the magnets together. The repulsion between the magnets will make the animal appear to bounce.

Educational Toys