Sink or Float?

We started the morning with some random objects in the Touch and Feel pool.  There was a rock, a quarter, some spoons, a wooden block, a feather, and a popsicle stick. The kiddos talked about the objects, like how heavy or light they were and what each one was used for and made out of, and they wondered what we could possibly be doing with them at school. Ms. Laura introduced the concepts of sink and float.....and told them we would be experimenting with the objects today at science.

Ms. Michele was here today with some fun Easter activities.  She had the chairs in the room set up in the design of a "bunny trail".  There were tiny eggs hidden everywhere.  Under the chairs, beside the chairs, and in the windows.  The kids had to pick a utensil, like tongs or spoons, off the table at the beginning of the trail, and use it to pick up the eggs along the trail.  When they dropped off their eggs in the basket at the end, they had to switch utensils and do it all again.  After a few turns for everyone, we moved on the finger fun.  Today it was a mixture of cornstarch, vegetable oil, strawberry shortcake mix, and sprinkles.  We made pretend cookies using cookie cutters.  The kids made shapes and talked about the colored sprinkles they could see.  It was super fun, but it sure was messy! 

 Today's story was Little Tug by Stephen Savage.  This is a story about a tugboat named Little Tug.  Little Tug may not be very tall or very fast, but when the big ships in the harbor need help, they know they can count on him to be there with a push, a pull, and a ride to safety. But what happens when Little Tug gets tired?

Instead of art today, we did some serious science.  We made predictions about all our objects from the morning pool.  Would they sink....and go to the bottom of the water.....or would they float.....and stay on the top?  We talked about ways to make smart guesses, like feeling the objects to see if they were heavy, but sometimes the kiddos were certain they knew what would happen!  We charted our predictions and moved to the table for the experiment.  The kids took turns adding each thing to our water bucket.  Some floated, and some sank.  Our predictions weren't always right.....but seeing it sure did help us understand.  The paper was probably the coolest thing we saw because when we first put it in the water, it floated.....but after a little bit of time, the water made it heavy.....and it sank.  It was a fun science day.....and they all seemed to walk away with a better understanding of sink and float.  We encouraged the kiddos to try their own experiment in the bathtub tonight....so be on the lookout for little scientist playing in the water!!