Sink vs Float

Sink vs float pirate ships!

 

 

During our pirate theme I like to add in some science fun and what better way to go along with our pirate ship discussion then a sink vs float experiment.

Now, anyone that knows me is aware that I am not a worksheet fan!!! However, in this case it is a great visual tool to go along with the experiment that the children can bring home and discuss with their parents to further their understanding of the lesson.

 

To begin I called the children over to the table in groups of two to try the experiment. Since our letter of the week was letter X the children used x's to indicate if the item floated on the water or sunk to the bottom.

 

When all the items had been tested I encouraged the children to begin making their own pirate ships out of tin foil to try out their own individual experiment. To test and see how many unifix cubes they could fit on their boat before it would sink.

 



 

Once the children were satisfied with how their boat looked I had them make a prediction as to how many cubes the boat would hold. A note to teachers or parents who are trying this activity, many of these boats held over 100 unifix cubes so this can be a very time consuming process! However, it's a great way to get the students who do not usually like to count, engaged in the counting! 

When we were done we graphed our results as a class and discussed the attributes of the boats which held more cubes versus the ones which sank with only a few cubes on board.

 



 

As a follow up activity the children each completed a paper where they illustrated something that floats and something that sinks and were challenged to write the word which corresponded to the item.

 

We also made these painted egg carton ships complete with popsicle stick pirate flags which are held in place with our old playdoh! : )

 

Happy learning sailors!!!