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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

sink or float

A classic experiment...



Will it sink,
or will it float?

Some of the objects we've been testing:

ping pong balls
sea glass
beads
lava rocks
playground rocks
corks
plastic ice cubes
marbles


When the child discovers whether an object sinks or floats,
he puts it in the "sink" section or the "float" section of a laminated chart.

As you may know, I'm a right-brained kind of gal, and honestly,
I don't blame you if the thought of a laminated chart sounds lame,
BUT it's not lame!

It provides the child with experience in

sorting AND graphing,

AND it leads to comments like,

"Hey! More things sink than float!"

AND everyone, even the non-readers,
are exposed to the words "sink" and "float."


How swell is that?!

9 comments:

  1. Good points! Sink and float never gets old either. May I ask where you got your chart? The illustrations are very clear and I have only seen hand drawn versions.

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  2. I'm all about charts too! =) We just did something similar but didn't prepare a chart ahead of time. =(

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  3. As always, I love your idea!! I can't wait to try this with my kiddos...

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  4. Laminated chart, What a wonderful idea...we did this activity not long ago, and as you can see by the picture (you have to scroll down a bit) a laminated chart would have been so much better that our soaked paper and towel! I would love to know where you got your chart!
    http://mymontessorihomeblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/hands-theme.html

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  5. yeah, i love your chart! would love to find a copy like that. great simple illustrations. nothin wrong with charts~!

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  6. great idea! I'll try it someday :) thank you.

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  7. Did you make the chart? Where did you get the graphics? Was it premade chart? Where did you get it?

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  8. Love the graph. We did this at home this summer. My daughter drew a graph on paper and clipped it to a clip board. Then collected all of her things to test and drew pictures of each of them. Then, she climbed in the bathtub and asked me to check off sink or float as she tested each object -- such a little scientist! She would have loved a center like this, I may need to make one for her little sister on our preschool shelves!

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  9. Thanks for all the nice comments/ideas! The chart doesn't really look that fab up close - the lines are just done with a ruler! I'll try to figure out a way to share the sink/float graphic... a test of my computer skills! :)

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