As most of you know we are a homeschooling family. I also know we have several other homeschooling (or soon to be homeschooling) families here so I thought I would share a recent science activity my boys enjoyed. Well actually any family with young children might enjoy this activity, so don’t let the word “homeschooling” turn you off if that’s not your thing. 🙂

This activity requires very little in the way of prepartion, materials, or clean up… which is definitely my kind of activity!

Materials:

Paper

Pen/Marker

8 random items per child (or any number of items you want to use)

small tub of water

towel

Directions:

I asked each child to go around the house (inside or out) and collect 8 items. While they collected their items I filled a small plastic container with water. I used a 1lb spinach container from Costco (I re-purpose those suckers in a bunch ways!) but any container will work. Then I made a super simple and quick graph on paper. When the boys returned with their items I wrote the name of each item down the left hand column. The next two columns read “sink” and “float”.  (You could also take this opportunity to embed some writing/literacy skills by having your child write the words).

After some basic discussion about the definition of the words sink and float, we decided to test each item. Before actually placing it in the water I would encourage them to predict if they thought the item would sink or float. Once they tested each item, they would then place an X in the appropriate column. You will probably want your towel nearby to wipe up any drips/splashes.

Afterwards we discussed if there were any similarities in the items that floated and those that sank. I also embedded some math skills by encouraging the boys to count how many items sank and how many items floated from each of their charts and then they add them together for a grand total.

For more fun science activities visit Science Kids. Have fun watching your little ones learn and grow!

-Sarah