- clear container with approx. 5 inches of water
- foil
- penny
- picture of a boat on the water
- plastic straw
- rock
- rubber band
- float
- sink
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
Language/L.PK.MA.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, listening to books read aloud, activities, and play.
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Language Development/Expressive Language: Uses language to express ideas and needs.
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2: Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Talk Together: Introduce Float and Sink
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: Objects behave differently in water; Some things float; Some things sink; Solids have physical characteristics that can be observed and described
ELA Focus Skills: Listening and Speaking, Vocabulary
Introduce the concepts of float and sink. Ask children if they have ever been on a boat in the water. Have children describe their experiences. Point to the picture as you explain that boats float on the surface of the water, or stay at the top of the water.
- Distribute rubber bands to a few children and ask them to describe them. Place the rubber band in the water and ask children to describe what happened. If children do not use the word float, introduce it. For example, say, Yes, the rubber band stayed on top of the water. It is floating on the water.
- Repeat the same steps with a plastic straw.
- Then distribute a few pennies to children and ask them to describe them. Say, Let’s see what this penny will do in the water. Ask children to put the penny in the water and to describe what happens to it. If children do not use the word sink, introduce it. For example, say, Yes, the penny goes to the bottom of the water. It sinks.
Tell children they will be exploring water outdoors today. You may want to review the basic water rules at this time.
English Language Learners: To help children understand that float is when something is on top of the surface of the water and not on the bottom, help them determine other things that float by testing additional objects in the water, such as foam cutout, cork, feather, or plastic egg.