Magnet Hunt in the Shed

Little Thunder was helping in the farm shed when he dropped a tiny bolt. Plink! It bounced off the bench and vanished into a pile of straw.

"Oh no," he groaned. "The farmer needs that bolt to fix the gate."

Spike sniffed the straw. Suzy pawed through it gently. But the bolt was too small to find.

Then Suzy's green eyes lit up. "I know! The big horseshoe magnet!"

She fetched the red magnet from the toolbox. "Magnets pull on things made of iron and steel," she explained. "Let's test it first."

They lined up some things from the shed. A nail. A wooden peg. A steel spanner. A rubber boot. A paper seed packet.

"Guess first," said Spike. "Which ones will stick?"

Little Thunder guessed the nail and the spanner. Spike guessed the boot. They swept the magnet along the row. Click! The nail jumped up. Clack! The spanner stuck. The boot, the peg and the paper stayed still.

"Rubber, wood and paper aren't magnetic," said Suzy.

Then they swept the magnet slowly over the straw. Tink! There was the bolt, stuck to the end.

"Farmers use magnets to find lost metal so cows don't eat it by mistake," said Suzy. Little Thunder nodded. He would definitely not be eating any bolts.