Christmas STEM Activity for Kids with Magna-Tiles & Jingle Bells

This Christmas STEM activity for kids uses magnetic tiles and jingle bells. It's a perfect Christmas science activity for preschoolers and toddlers!

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Playing with magnetic tiles never gets old in our house. And recently, our beloved Magna-Tiles got a Christmas makeover! 

It all started when I pulled out some jingle bells for the boys to explore with. Next thing I know, we've got 3D Christmas trees decorated with jingle bells popping up in my living room...

Turns out this simple combination of materials makes a great Christmas STEM activity for kids, especially for toddlers and preschoolers. My boys did a little building, made some music, and created their own little game.

Christmas Tree STEM Activity: What You'll Need

You'll need two things for this Christmas science activity, which you can probably guess simply by reading the title of this post or looking at the photos, right? Regardless, here's what you'll need:

• Magnetic tiles - We used our clear colors set of Magna-Tiles for this activity, but any brand or color of magnetic tiles will do the trick.

• Jingle bells of various sizes and colors

Simply set out all of the materials together or on a tray. You could also build one Christmas tree shape with jingle bells if you'd like to show a prompt. Personally, I prefer to set out the materials and let the kids build and explore as they see fit. But, as I noted above, this activity came together on its own simply because I set out some jingle bells. It was the boys who grabbed the magnetic tiles to pair with them.

Exploring Magnetic Tiles & Jingle Bells Together

The first thing my boys did was create some Christmas trees using three Magna-Tiles isosceles triangles. Then they started sticking some jingle bells on to decorate them. And voila - instant festive decorations! Aren't they pretty?

After building some trees, the boys built some boxes to hold all of the jingle bells. They proceeded to fill and dump, fill and dump, fill and dump...you know, things little kids love to do over and over. Only this time the dumping and refilling was a bit more noisy and musical.

Next, the boys stacked some Magna-Tiles and added jingle bells to the edges to create some DIY jingle shaker instruments. Naturally, a little bit of dancing followed suit.

My oldest, J, also came up with some kind of game using the Magna-Tiles and jingle bells. He stacked all the silver bells on the Magna-Tiles (see the photo below) and then tried to knock them off using the green and red bells. It was kind of like a bowling game, I guess? Either way, he had fun with this little game for quite some time.

Other Variations to Expand this Christmas Science Activity Further

There are other ways to expand this activity further, if you'd like.

For instance, if you're using clear magnetic tiles, you could try this activity on the light table. The little Christmas trees would then light up and glow!

In addition to jingle bells, you could set out some other magnetic items to decorate the mini trees with. Things such as magnetic counters or pipe cleaners would work great.

Another idea is to pair the magnetic tiles and jingle bells with some dry erase markers. That way the kids could decorate the little Christmas trees, not only with jingle bells, but with little drawings of tinsel, ornaments, and whatnot.

Whether you try this Christmas STEM activity with just the two items or with one of the variations above, your kids are going love this activity! It's an incredibly engaging and fun activity - and super simple to set up! I know my boys returned to it again and again for quite some time.

Shape Building Challenge on the Light Table

With colder winter temperatures comes more indoor play, which inevitably means more light table activities in our house. 

Six year old J, in particular, has been showing a renewed interest in playing on the DIY light table. In fact, as soon as we get home from school, he runs downstairs to the playroom to do some light play. It's his way of calming down after a busy day at school. I've always said that light table play is calming for kids.

Lately, J really enjoys exploring and playing with the translucent cocktail stirrers on the light table. I've occasionally found him chewing on them too, but that's a whole other issue. Usually, like 90% of the time, he manipulates the stirrers to create numbers and other math related things, which is why we recently did this shape building light table activity together.

This post contains affiliate links.

Shape Building Light Table Activity for Kids

For this shape building light table challenge, we used:

• Magformers
• Translucent cocktail stirrers from the dollar store (similar to these)

Simply create a shape using the Magformers on the light table and encourage your kids to recreate them using the same colors (if possible). Or have the kids create their own shapes and recreate them as well. So for instance, my boys created blue squares to match the blue square Magformers.

You can also combine different Magformers to create more complex shapes like houses or triangle patterns.

The kids can also explore color mixing with the cocktail stirrers, especially if they are trying to match the stirrers' colors to the Magformers. My boys layered two cocktail stirrers to create purple and orange to match the Magformers, for example.

Then be sure to keep experimenting with more elaborate and complex shapes as you please. The possibilities are endless!

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Invitation to Play: Magna-Tiles & a Magna-Doodle

If you are familiar with my blog at all, then you already know that we are huge fans of Magna-Tiles. Well, my oldest J also loves playing with his Magna-Doodle, which he got for Christmas. He has used it so much that I already had to tape the string back to the pen. One day I noticed him combining the two toys. It was a brilliant way to explore shapes, math, letters, and, of course his favorite topic lately, fractions. Simple math learning at its finest as created by my hypernumerate five year old.

This no-prep activity for kids using Magna-Tiles is a great way to explore mathematical concepts, fine motor skills, prewriting, and more!

This post contains affiliate links. A big thank you to Valtech for providing us with the Magna-Tiles 100 piece solid colors set.

Simple Math & Prewriting Boredom Buster for Kids

For this math and prewriting invitation to play, we used:

• Magna-Tiles 100 piece set of solid colors
• Magna-Doodle

First, the boys created shapes by "stamping" the different shapes of Magna-Tiles on the Magna-Doodle. Then the boys would trace the shape's outline using the Magna-Doodle's pen.

The boys also stamped the side of the Magna-Tiles to create numbers and letters to trace.

Then J started doing fractions. He started by stamping four of the small squares, but quickly realized that he could stamp a large square Magna-Tile and fit four small squares inside.

Then he moved to stamping triangles inside the large square's outline. He, of course, wrote the numbers for each fraction as he went along.

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Learning Multiplication with Magna-Tiles

We love doing hands-on math activities in our house and lately, those math activities involve Magna-Tiles. We've used the Magna-Tiles to explore symmetry, measure objects around the house, play dominoes, and practice tally marks. Now we're going to show you how to use them to learn multiplication. My five year old came up with this activity on his own and shocked me with his ability to multiply (that likely has something to do with that hypernumeracy of his). Regardless, it shocked me.

Teaching multiplication to kids is easy with this simple, no-prep math activity for kids.

This post contains affiliate links. And a big shout out to Valtech, the makers of Magna-Tiles for providing us with a 100 piece set of solid colors to play with.

How to Teach Multiplication to Kids Using Magna-Tiles

To use Magna-Tiles to learn about multiplication is really easy. We used only the squares from the 100 piece set. Since there are 50 squares, we can do multiplication problems that have an answer of 50 or less. So definitely lots of problems to solve!

Basically my son built a grid according to whatever the given problem was. Then he recorded his answer on a piece of paper. Here he is doing 7 x 3 by building a line of seven Magna-Tiles so that there would be seven columns. Then he adds additional rows until he gets to three rows.

Then simply count up the squares to get the answer! Easy!

Here's J demonstrating 10 X 2...

Why yes, it does equal 20! Good work, J!

J ended up doing a whole bunch of multiplication problems. The front and back of this paper were covered with problems. And he also added some commentary. Notice the "lots squares 24" and "30 big num" (the rest of the word "numbers" made it onto another piece of paper).

I did have a video to add to the post, but alas, it ended up blurry because I used the wrong setting (insert sad face here). And my attempts to recreate it were met with unhappy children. Oh well!

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Such a quick and easy math activity for learning about multiplication, right? This post is part of the A-Z Stem Series hosted by Little Bins for Little Hands. You can check out all the posts in this series here.

7 Reasons Why Magna-Tiles are a Must-Own Toy! {Kids Holiday Wishlist: Reviewed!}

Last Christmas, Magna-Tiles were on our wish list. I knew they would make a fabulous addition to our light table collection. Then one day, I splurged and we haven't looked back. Since the moment we first opened the box, the kids fell in love with them. Magna-Tiles have since been a favorite toy for both of my boys (and for many of my piano students' siblings!). So here are 7 reasons why we love Magna-Tiles and why I think every kid should own a set. 

This post contains affiliate links. 

7 Reasons Why Magna-Tiles are a Must-Own Toy!

I know I have raved about how much my boys love the Magna-Tiles before, but if you need further convincing why you must own this building set, then here are my top seven reasons why you and your kids need them.

1. Magna-Tiles make a great addition to light table play. 

The clear colors set is ideal for light table play. I mean look...

Ooooh-aaaah! So pretty, right? So whether you have a small light panel, a DIY light box, or a large light table, your kids will definitely enjoy how the Magna-Tiles look when the light shines through. Layer a couple Magna-Tiles and you can explore color mixing too! Don't have a light table? Well, they look fabulous in natural light too!

2. Magna-Tiles are open-ended and versatile. 

The possibilities are endless when it comes to building with Magna-Tiles. From a giant, colorful soccer field for figurines to tin can and Magna-Tiles rockets to houses and 3D shapes, my boys never seem to run out of creative ways to build with them. Recently, three year old K has been building fancy garages out of the Magna-Tiles so that he would have somewhere to park his cars.

3. Magna-Tiles are great for kids of multiple ages. 

My boys are currently three and five and both enjoy building with them. Kids aside, I also enjoy playing with Magna-Tiles. They are just plain fun! I usually set out Magna-Tiles for the boys to play with while I'm teaching piano. Oftentimes, I catch some of the parents and their other children playing with them too. Magna-Tiles are irresistible to little and big hands.

4. Magna-Tiles are super easy to store. 

When we need to store the Magna-Tiles, which is rare, or transport them from room to room, we store our Magna-Tiles in a clear tote. We own the 100 piece set and it all fits in this one bin (pictured below). Since the Magna-Tiles are magnetic, you can stack and store them quite easily. They don't take up much room at all. And please disregard my model's extra dirty clothes...he was coloring furiously with chalk just before I asked him to do some modeling. I may or may not have been fending off an angry three year old as well. Why was he angry, you ask? Because I packed up his Magna-Tiles to transport them upstairs. True story.

5. Magna-Tiles are durable. 

The boys love to build tall towers and destroy them. That means that oftentimes, Magna-Tiles come crashing down onto hard surfaces. Many months in and we've yet to break, scratch, or dent a Magna-Tile. Knock on wood. I hope to keep it that way!

6. There are no tiny pieces. 

My kids like building with blocks and LEGO and such, but they have tiny pieces. Tiny pieces that hurt when you step on them. Tiny pieces that easily get lost. Tiny pieces that easily (and quite accidentally) get eaten (a LEGO eye may have recently been consumed by a child in my house). That is not a problem with Magna-Tiles. They don't hurt to step on, trust me, which also supports reason number five.

7. Magna-Tiles are easy to build with. 

I remember both of my boys being frustrated by certain types of building sets because the pieces wouldn't hold their place or the pieces were difficult to take apart. Since Magna-Tiles are magnetic, the pieces just simply stick together, making them great for little toddler hands or kids with fine motor difficulties. Plus, playing with magnets is just plain old fun!


So now that I have convinced you of their awesomeness, here's where you can purchase them:

Magna-Tiles (Canada)

Magna-Tiles (USA)

Magna-Tiles (UK)

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This review is part of the Kid's Holiday Wishlist: Reviewed! series. You can read about all the other great products by perusing the full wishlist here.

Tally Marks Math with Magna-Tiles

We are fully immersed in tally marks math mode here! 

J loves tallies and counting by fives, so to further encourage his interests, we used our Magna-Tiles to work on tallies. This simple math activity was also a great way to practice writing and addition. 

This post contains affiliate links.

How to Practice Tally Marks with Magna-Tiles

J and I came up with this math activity together after spending hours playing with Magna-Tiles and dry erase markers. He spent over four hours with just these two materials. First, it was open-ended play. Then it was DIY mix and match creature puzzles. Then it was DIY dominoes with Magna-Tiles. And then there was the tally marks.

Only one group of five tallies were allowed per small square, which visually reinforces how multiplication by fives works. Here's his representation of the number 17. As a side note, I have no idea why he writes his sevens like this. He does it only occasionally though.

Anyway, J being J, small numbers just weren't going to do. He worked on big numbers like 120.

And 185.

205...and so on...until he ran out of Magna-Tiles.

Once he ran out of Magna-Tiles, he switched to addition mode. He would write an addition problem, of his own choosing, on a large Magna-Tile. Then he would write out the addition sentence using the small square Magna-Tiles, such as this one.

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