Magnetic Pom Poms for Toddlers & Preschoolers

My kids love to be around me whether I am in the kitchen, the garden or trying to find 5 minutes of peace somewhere. My lastest tasks have been to occupy said kids in the kitchen.

These pom poms with magnetic backings are perfect for a bit of fridge sorting, counting, and arranging.

Update: I now have an old whiteboard that I use for homeschooling. I made a brand new set of these magnetic pom-poms in rainbow colors to use on this board! Also, a new video is at the bottom of this post!

Warning: This is a supervised activity. Small parts for young children. If your child intentionally wants to still eat the pom-poms, it’s better to try this activity at a later date.

How to Make Magnetic Pom Poms

Supplies for Magnetic Pom Poms:

Magnetic stick-on magnets. Ours are holding up very well after months of use and still sticking to the pompom.
Variety of colored pompoms; i tried to get the colors of the rainbow but whatever you can get.
Hot glue gun (for alternative method)

Directions:

Peel off the adhesive tabs and press down the pompom onto the sticky side. I found using a magnetic tray was best to keep the magnets from moving too much.

Update: The adhesive did well for the older kids but the younger ones kept trying to pull the magnets off. On our new rainbow pom-poms, I have added the peace of mind of hot glue. I suggest using the adhesive for preschoolers and using the hot glue method for the toddlers.

For our rainbow pom-poms, I made 10 of each color. This allows me to use counting to 10 with the toddler and extend counting for my preschooler with multiple colors. The color variety also allows me to introduce skip counting, such as 2’s (2, 4 ,6 ,8, 10) if I use different colors.

We use the pom-poms to explore sticking and counting as well as grouping them in colors.

My eldest makes alternating color line-ups and shapes. With a variety of colors, patterning is endless!

I also use these with my toddler! She loves to stick them on and pull them off again to pack in and out of the bowl. Check out what I wrote about keeping my toddler occupied in the kitchen.