Got That Sinking (and Floating) Feeling

I am definitely not a scientist but an experiment in sinking and floating with a 3 year old is something that I can do. It's amazing the way this little theme has come together just at the same time that we happened to borrow the book 'Who Sank the Boat?' from the library. Pamela Allen is a current favourite children's author for Daddy.

Last night in the bath Miss M had some bath characters and was trying to put them in the coloured plastic boats. With the toys added some boats stayed afloat and some sank immediately. This brought about the conversation of sinking and floating which seemed to capture Miss M's little mind. I could see it ticking over so I planned a little something for today's activities to extend that conversation further.

This morning in our play downstairs we had some water play but instead of putting bottles, cups and funnels in the water I asked Miss M to collect some things from around the yard so we could see if they would sink or float. As you can see from the picture we had quite an experiment on our hands. Miss M was able to work out from observation that the heavier items sank while the lighter items floated. She discovered that....

these items floated

• a stick
• a flower
• a blade of grass
• a leaf

and these items sank

• a pebble
• a rock
• a lemon
• a small handful of sand

Our play time outdoors finished with a story time on the mat so we just had to read 'Who Sank the Boat?' by Pamela Allen.