Sink or Float?

Students participated in sink or float experiments with their fifth grade buddies last Friday. Students worked with their buddy to select five different objects from around the room. Each Kindergarten student wrote the name of the object, predicted whether it was going to sink or float, and then conducted the experiment with their fifth grade buddy. After testing five different objects, students discussed their observations and conclusions. As a whole group, we talked about objects that we thought would float, but didn't and objects that we thought would sink, and they didn't. Our fifth grade buddies really help guide the students to think deeper and question why a particular object sank or floated. One group tested a rubber "counting bear" from our Math area and it sank. Another group tested a similar bear, except their bear floated. We talked about how this "counting bear" had a small hole just on the bottom, so it depended on whether water filled that hole or not. This made for a lot of great questions and conversations. We then conducted different experiements with pumpkins, trying to decide whether they would sink or float. We cut holes in the bottom of the pumpkins and holes in the top of the pumpkins, trying to see if our "counting bear" experiment would prove to have the same results. Ask your child about what happened when the pumpkin had a big hole carved out of the top and the bottom and ask them what their initial prediction was. Hands on experiments are so much fun!