Oil Pan Magnet Board

My daughter and I both love magnets.  I have a couple small magnetic boards hung up in play areas and one side of the fridge dedicated to magnetic toys.  But, I wanted a bigger and easily movable board.  I picked up an oil drip pan from the automotive department at Walmart ( I think it was $10-$12).  My husband drilled a couple of holes in it so that I can hang it up when needed. 
 
Here are just some examples of what we do with this large metal pan.

Ramp
Daddy and her love to have car races down the ramp.  My daughter also loves to roll balls down it or use it as a mountain that her animals must hike up.
 
Messy Play
Sometimes I put messy play projects on it (nothing super messy because of the holes we drilled).  My daughter loves playing play doh on this board because it gives her the freedom to do things she would not be able to do while playing play doh on the table (Example- try to make foot prints).

 
Magnet Play
When it is on the wall she spends time just playing with her magnets.  We enjoy using it to act out stories.  In this picture we have Dr. Seuss cut-outs (I added the magnets), her gears, and a bunch of letters she grabbed off her other magnet boards.
 
Floor puzzles
This was one of the main reasons I wanted this large board.  I thought it would be great to be able to put magnets on the back of the pieces and put the puzzle together on the wall so that it was out of the way.  It probably would have worked great if we permanently attached the oil pan to the wall.  But since we get it down a lot and we bend it a little using it for other activities the floor puzzle does not work as well as I hoped.  However, since we only have carpet, the board is still great for putting on the floor and playing with her floor puzzles.

School Work
We use the board to practice math and language during school time.  I use the numbers from a magnetic travel sudoku game and words from a magnetic sentence building kit (both pictured below).  I also make magnets to go with whatever we are learning (example- more or less symbols).
 
Just a few of our magnetic toys that I recommend

 


 


 


 

3 comments:

  1. Wow! I never thought one of those drip pans could be so versatile. I have seen them used with magnets, but that didn't seem versatile enough to get. This post has probably changed my mind though. I can't wait to try that ramp idea!

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad this post gave you some ideas. We keep finding new ways to use it.

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