Unit 9: Wonderful Water

Name the letters in the word boat. Have children fish for the letters and arrange them to spell boat.

Use the Letter Sort Routine to help children distinguish letter shapes and recognize the shape of the target letter, “Bb.”

Have children choose some objects to test whether they float or sink. Glue the floating items on one part of a paper plate, and the sinking items on another.

Help children make puppets of the characters from Who Sank the Boat

Place a bin of water in the Block Area to represent a bay. Have children build a coastline around the bay.

Invite children to make the letter “Bb” with blocks. Have them count the number of blocks they use.

Encourage children to select books that they have not “read” before and to look at the words and pictures on their own or with other children.

Read aloud Who Sank the Boat? to individuals or small groups. Review how the added weight of the mouse made the boat sink.

Encourage children to use the puppets they made in the Art Center to retell the story.

Demonstrate how to use the balance or homemade scale. Let children compare objects and guess which one is heavier.

Partner children to see which of their boats can hold the most weight before sinking.

Have children test objects to see if they will float or sink. Instruct children to place the objects in the “sink” or “float” half of a poster board based on what happened.

Play the PEEP and the Big Wide World video “Making Things Float and Sink.” Have each child draw a picture about the discoveries the children in the video made.

Have children draw, dictate, or write something that surprised them as they were exploring making objects and float and sink. Compile the pages to make a group book.