Science in the Early Years:
Floating and Sinking
By: Ashlee Steward
It is important to give children the opportunity to investigate how things work.
Water is always something children love to explore, either in a water tray, paddling pool, mud kitchens
and more!
When children play with water and start to experiment with it, you will notice they may
investigate whether things float or sink naturally. For children to understand why different
materials sink or float they must have lots of opportunities to experiment and build up their
understanding of such vocabulary such as float, sink, sunk, etc.
Investigating floating and sinking with your children
What you need
Clear container of water - water tray, bucket or bowl or a paddling pool outdoors if you have one
available. Offer a selection of objects that float or sink, such as corks, lollipop sticks, lids, foil dishes,
plastic and metal teaspoons, marble, conker, coin, bottle tops, sponge. You could also include different
fruits and vegetables to see whether they all behave in the same way.
What to do
You may offer many of the suggested materials as part of your continuous provision but organising
an adult-led activity which investigates floating and sinking is an ideal way to introduce children to
predicting and testing their ideas.
Working with a small group of children, ask questions such as:
'What does the word “float” mean?'
'What do we mean when we say something sinks?’