I have seen these marble magnets in many Montessori type activities, so I decided to make some of my own! They were incredibly easy, and are so much fun for Little Lion to manipulate.

An important word of caution…these should only be used under very close supervision, as they are not only a choking hazard but magnets can also be very dangerous if swallowed. LL attempted to put them in his mouth once while we were playing (and they immediately went in “time out”), even though he very rarely does this with toys anymore, so it is definitely worth being extra careful. That said, I still think they are a great activity and we use them almost daily!

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For the Magnets

  • A bag of flat marbles – I liked the multi-colored ones so that we can use them to work on matching and color sorting.
  • A package of circular magnets
  • Hot glue gun and hot glue
  • Bag for storage

For the Activity

  • Cookie Sheet
  • Printables (Google “dot printables” or click on the links at the bottom of this post for some of my favorites)
  • Clear tape (or another type, any will work)

To make the magnets, attach one magnet to the back of each marble. Use a lot of glue, the hotter the better. My low temp hot glue did not stay stuck very well, but my high heat glue did.

Print out one (or more) of the dot printables, and attach it to the cookie sheet with some tape.

That’s it! Once your marbles are dry they are ready for play!

I like to try to have LL match the marble color to the background color on the printable, but this isn’t necessary. It is great fine motor practice for him to line up the marbles inside the circles, or to ignore the printable altogether and make his own designs. They also make great refrigerator magnets when not in use.

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Our Favorite Dot Printables