6
A
ccording to a legend, a shepherd discovered magnets 4,000 years ago. One day, the shepherd Magnes was walking in a region of Greece called Magnesia. He sat down and looked at his sandals. He had metal nails in his sandals. The sandals kept sticking to the rocks where he was walking. The metal end of the shepherd’s hook also stuck to the rocks. The rocks that stuck to metal were naturally occurring magnets called lodestones .
Read the legend. Then number the pictures in order.
Is the legend true? No one knows for sure. Some say the story took place in India instead of Greece. But finding rocks that could stick to sandals started some creative thinking and new inventions that have used magnets for thousands of years.
Standards Link: Reading: Recount stories including legends.
You can’t see the force that pulls certain kinds of metal towards a magnet. But it is a force in nature, like gravity is a natural force, that we can’t see. What do magnets attract? Metals such as iron, nickel, and cobalt are attracted to magnets. Other materials such as aluminum, glass, plastic, and wood aren’t attracted to magnets. Invisible Power: Magnetism Do the math to see which of these items are attracted to magnets. If the answer is an even number, that means it’s magnetic.
9 + 9 =
7 + 8 =
11 + 3 =
4 + 3 =
13 - 4 =
12 + 8 =
3 + 3 =
4 + 1 =
Standards Link: Science: Understand the interaction between magnets and magnetic materials.
6 + 4 =
© Vicki Whiting November 2025
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