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Floating And Sinking


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Has anyone taught a lesson to reception chn on floating and sinking? If so, did you get the chn to record? I was thinking of pictures they could stick either on or under a picture of a water tank to show which objects float or sink. Does this sound ok?

Not sure how to differentiate it though so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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Differentiate by outcome--how much support you give the child and how independently they work! Perhaps some will be able to record after the investigation and others will need to return and find out again? Some will get on by themselves, others will need an adult for the whole process?

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I did the activity today and did differentiate by outcome in the end. Not sure if the main teaching was any good though as it was hard to explain in child speak about floating and sinking. xD Will find out how bad it was when I get the lesson feedback. :o

I would be interested to know for future reference how others do it, is it enough to get the chn to understand that not all heavy objects sink and light objects float?

 

Thanks for the help.

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We did floating and sinking today - totally unplanned (often the best way). I had two big blocks of ice with various little plastic toys etc frozen into them. When the children had spent a good 30 -45 minutes melting the ice using various means (rubbing it til their hands hurt, pouring hot and cold water over) they moved on to seeing which things in the room floated and which sank in the cold water we then had. They were trying to make the ones that sank float by putting them on top of something that floated and vice versa for the ones that floated (putting them under something that sank). I couldn't have thought of a better idea for learning myself! Lots of positional language, and lots of fun!

 

Carolyn

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Tried to reply to this one last night but was having trouble with the computer xD Could ask the more able (or all) to predict what will sink or float. Also make a sinker float/a floater sink eg a ball of plasticine will sink, but when stretched out (make into a boat shape) will :o float. How many marbles etc you can put in a fast food tray before it sinks (maths work) Also look at where you put the weight in a toy boat - balancing. Mr. Gumpy's outing is a nice book to read alongside this.

 

Matilda - the pictures of objects below and above the water line would make a really good (and quick) display - just draw a water tray and stick the objects on or below the water line.

 

Harricroft

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Just wanted to say thanks for the replies. I had the feedback form my lesson and it was not bad at all. :D All that worrying for nothing!

Thanks again.

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  • 4 months later...

Just seen in another school a wonderful idea about floating and sinking. First they put fruit juice into tumblers or large glassess. They then had a variety of different fruit the children made prediction about floating and sinking - making a fruit cocktail. Afterwards the children ate it. I will certainly be doing that next year.

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When we do this we have two trays with labels - we float - we sink with a small picture of somthing floating or sinking. Children test them out after trying to guess the outcome. This happens after lots of water play experience.

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Who Sank The Boat is another good book. We make boats to experiment with out of fast food/food trays

Also interesting cos animals sink when not on boat. Always makes me think of Swallows and Amazons somehow!

Does anyone know if there are any companies that make props for this story to use in water tray? We never have a mouse(I use a mole) :oxD

Barb

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Did this during ofsted week (& it went well, so of course no-one came along to observe the lesson :o )

 

We had a very interesting discussion with some more able children about thing sinking if they are heavy for their size, and floating if the are light for their size. I thought this was pretty smart, and they seemed to understand this quite well. I would certainly use this way of describing it in future.

 

Dianne

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry, have only just seen these replies but wanted to say thanks. Definitely worth considering for the future!

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Hi Matilda -

In case you haven't come across it, you can get email notification of any topics that are added to once you've posted in them.

 

Just go to 'My controls', select 'email settings' and check the box marked 'Enable 'Email Notification' by default?'.

 

Hope that helps! :)

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