If you’ve followed us for any length of time you know we love love love magnetic tiles! They are probably our most used toy in the house. Magnetic tiles are one of the best toys for open-ended play. We have had many sets over the years and they hold up incredibly well, given the amount of wear and tear they get! Here are some fun magnetic tile activity ideas that include fun ways to use your magnetic tiles in addition to building structures:
Magnetic Tile Dominos
Did you know magnetic tiles can work like dominos? We recently discovered this and it’s soooo much fun!
Just set up a row of square tiles on a flat surface, then stand another square tile straight up on one edge. Continue for each tile in the row. Once all you tiles are in place, knock the first one over and let the rest fall like dominoes!
Check out the below video to see Magnetic Tile Dominos in action:
Alexander went crazy for this and just kept saying “Again, again!” After each run! Listen with the sound on and you can hear him! 😂 We probably repeated this setup 20 times at least! That’s when I know I have a winner! Also a great activity for color matching, fine motor and learning about magnets!
And don’t forget to check out our NEW book – 100 Easy STEAM Activities is full of fun games and creative projects to learn early concepts in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math with materials you already have around the house!
Magnetic Tile Maze
For this activity you will need your magnetic tiles, a baking sheet and a small ball or pompom.
We set our magnetic tile maze up in swirl pattern, but you can do a standard maze as well. Building mazes is a great STEAM activity for the engineering and design components and then it’s fun to problem solve and navigate your way through the maze!
Magnetic Tile Knock Out
Here’s a great activity that’s sure to keep kids entertained and is great for explaining the concept of inertia.
Check out the below video to see Magnetic Tile Knock Out in action, then read on to make it yourself:
https://www.raisingdragons.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/finalvideo-2.movWhat You Will Need
- Magnetic tiles
- A small ball
How to Play Magnetic Tile Knockout
- Build a wall of tiles structure similar to the below picture:
Here’s a picture of the back of the structure: - Next take a small ball and try to hit one of the middle tiles.
- Watch as the ball knocks out the tile while leaving the structure standing.
- Keep throwing the ball at the wall of tiles until the entire structure collapses. Better yet, make it a game with two players and have each player try to knock down tiles without knocking down the entire structure. The person to knock over the entire structure loses!
Here’s a picture of the back of the structure: 
This demonstrates the concept of inertia in that an object at rest will stay at rest unless it is changed by an external force. Here the ball is the external force and it changes the tile it hits while leaving the other tiles unchanged.
More Magnetic Tile Activity Ideas
Here are some more fun ideas from some of our favorite sites:
- Metal Garage Canvas – Teaching Mama shows us that if you have a metal garage door, you have to try using the tiles on the garage to make endless art creations – https://teachingmama.org/fun-ideas-for-magna-tiles/
- Adventure In a Box creates uppercase letters using magnetic tiles – https://www.adventure-in-a-box.com/magna-tiles-alphabet-printable-cards/
- Happy Toddler Playtime does a fabulous color sorting activity with lids, magnetic tiles and tongs – https://www.instagram.com/p/ByJe_zGlZUr/?igshid=1g5qxv46nlszo
And if you don’t have your own set of magnetic tiles, you can find them here (aff link): https://amzn.to/2oGAbv7
