This was our first sink or float experiment and it felt like the most obvious thing to test craft materials!
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This idea came to me one day and it took literally five minutes to prepare. Actually I think it took me longer to write the chart than to do the rest of it!
I collected a range of craft materials to test:
- Pipe cleaner
- Rainbow pompom
- Sparkly pompom
- Craft stick
- Bell
- Crayon
- Feather
- Cork
- Wooden bead
- Plastic beads
- Straw
- Googly eye
- Sponge
- Plastic jewel
- Pouch cap
I then drew up a simple chart where we could record which items sank and which ones floated.
F was very interested in this activity and we both tried to predict the outcome of placing each craft material into the water.
There were several surprises: The wooden bead floated, but the plastic beads sank. The rainbow pompom floated, then became waterlogged and sank – but the sparkly one had some sort of foam centre, and only floated. The sponge kept us guessing for a while because it floated, then sank, then floated again!
After making these observations, F really impressed me by noting that the large googly eye only floated, and suggesting we should try different sizes. They floated too but I liked how he was thinking.
The only item he wouldn’t test was the crayon – simply stating that it was only for drawing. 🙂
