Toy of the Week: Magnetic Sand
Age: Preschool and elementary school aged children
What is it?
Magnetic sand is an amazing magic sand that sticks to itself but NOT to you. It’s basically sand without all the mess! It flows through your fingers but it’s moldable, so you can build sandcastles or other shapes.
Using magnetic sand to help your child’s speech and language development:
Magnetic sand is a wonderful hands-on sensory activity. Many children love the way it feels in their hands and dig right in. There are so many ways to play with magnetic sand while working on language development. One way is to use it to make a “treasure hunt” bin. Pour 2-3 pounds of magnetic sand in a plastic tub and put plastic figurines (farm animals, dinosaurs, shapes etc.) in it for your child to dig around and search for. They can dig with their fingers or with a shovel/spoon. Discuss what they found, where they found it and how they found it. Many language concepts can be taught during this activity including: shallow, deep, in the corner, under, at the top, both, one, all, etc. Another way to play with magnetic sand is to truly make a beach! Pour the sand into a shallow tray, grab some plastic figurines, sand and water animals and play food to create a beach scene. Target following directions by having kiddos put certain pieces in different spots at the beach and expand expressive language by having the child describe where the items are at the beach and how they look.