Give students time to play with a range of magnets, then draw out the science with the slide deck: magnetism is a force at a distance — it can attract or repel without touching. Show a bar magnet, name its two poles, and demonstrate that unlike poles attract and like poles repel.
Carefully (teacher only) place a bar magnet under paper and sprinkle iron filings to reveal the magnetic field. Then model testing an object with a magnet and sorting it as attracted or not. Revisit gravity as another force at a distance, and address the misconception: gravity pulls objects with mass together, not simply "down".
In pairs, students test the magnet poles together (attract/repel) and add the magnetic field to a labelled diagram of a bar magnet. Then they test an assortment of objects with a magnet and, as a class, sort them into "attracted" and "not attracted", discussing what the attracted objects have in common.
Students complete the Magnetic or Not? worksheet: recording their object tests, describing what kind of material is magnetic, explaining pole behaviour, defining "at a distance" with an everyday magnet use, and drawing the direction gravity pulls a dropped ball.
Exit ticket: name two non-contact forces and give one everyday use of a magnet.