Sink & Float

 

How Do You Explain Floating or Sinking to a Child? 

Young kids often understand the concept of objects being “heavy” or “light” and sometimes refer to those characteristics when they explain floating or sinking. 

Include a selection of these materials that float and sink for your activities:

• Twigs
• Corks
• Pop Sticks
• Stones
• Leaves
• Keys
• Crayons
• Rubber bands
• Small plastic toys
• Flowers
• Soap bars
• Sponges
• Bottle caps
• Kitchen utensils
• Combs
• Toothpicks
• Paperclips
• Wooden and plastic building blocks
• Pinecones
• Small balls
• Acorns
• Pencils
• Drinking straws
• Buttons

Play in the Water

Typical sink or float activities for toddlers are experiential. 

They play with various objects in the water and notice which ones float near the top while others sink down to the bottom. 

Experiment: Predict & Test Like Scientists

Floating and sinking experiments for preschoolers often include making predictions and conclusions. 

For organization, make a grid sheet with pictures of the base objects chosen for the activity. 

Ask kids to mark next to each picture whether they think it will sink or float. 

As each object is dropped in the water, they can then mark if their predictions came true, sorting the items by whether they sank or floated.

Afterwards, discuss why they think certain objects sank while others floated. Can they name any similarities in the materials?

Can they find other things that act in the same way? 

Experiment: Sinking Ship

Place a toy boat in a water-filled container. Urge children to discover ways of sinking the boat. They can add items to the boat for weight or even tip the boat until it fills with water. 

Challenge kids to decide why a boat sinks when tipped over. You can help them understand that the air inside helps the boat float and is replaced by water when it tips, making it sink.

Reference - https://happyhooligans.ca/sink-or-float-experiment-preschoolers/