Floating or Sinking Experiment for Toddlers

Hello Homeedders and Educators,

Science is made simple with this Does it Float or Sink Game for Toddlers. Get your kids splashing & having fun this water experiment.💦 An easy and early activity for preschool and toddlers to have.

This is what I did last week with my 2yr and 4mo toddler. Caleb and I had a lot of fun with this activity. He loves any activitiy that involves water so this was right in his element.

Discovering and Curiosity are the two traits that almost every kid possesses.

We began to gather and pick all kind of things you can naturally find outdoors, in the garden, park or in the yard. This was such a lovely way to spend a beautiful morning.

I chose to use objects found outside because I wanted to incorporate some outside time in the activity.

We had leaves, flowers, cones, hazelnuts, tree bark, beans, stones, shells, walnut shells, decorative glass pebbles, snail shell, wooden clips, chopsticks, small wooden balls, etc.

What You Need:

• a collection of items (you can get either their toys, household items, plastic items, nature items or anything else you consider right for this activity)
• one large container filled with water
• two more trays/bins (empty) for making the classification of the items

I prepared this activity where we filled one bin with water and another with different solid objects. Then I asked him to put the objects one by one (but in the end he put everything in the same time) into the water and notice what objects sank and what floated.

This activity provides
💦Sensory play
💦Motor skill development
💦Cognitive learning
💦Confidence development

All in all, it was quite a fruitful activity. My son's creativity was tested and his ability to find answers were put to work. He also tried to push the lighter objects into the water to check if they remained there.

Other Tips:

1. For older children, you can give them a recording sheet in which they had to tick either a Sink box or Float box depending upon the behaviour of the object.
2. Also, older children can make the connection with Heavier/Ligther analogy, understanding that heavier objects sank while the lighter objects floated.
3. You can place some mat under the water box and try to do this activity on floor to avoid mess and grab some more time for yourself while they play.
   

Thank you for reading and I hope this article is useful for you and you can implement this fun activity with your little ones!

Have a great day,

Missdeli