Christmas Sinking and Floating

We’ve done lots of sinking and floating activities before, but today, we tried it with a Christmas twist.

This is another fun and super simple Christmas science activity for little ones. Just grab some decorations you don’t mind getting wet ( or make them waterproof first by wrapping them in foil or plastic ).

Christmas – Sink or Float

A large container

Water

Decorations

Investigation

Ask the children to look at and feel the decorations. Can they predict which will sink and which will float?

Add each item one at a time to the water to test.

Christmas decoration floating on water for a festive STEM challenge

Were the predictions correct? If not, try the investigation again with different decorations.

Another idea is to make a plasticine boat or find a small bucket that floats. Ask the children to place an item that sank in the boat or bucket. It should now float!

Christmas decorations floating in a box of water

Results table

Print this handy table to record the sink or float test results.

Why do some objects float and some sink?

Whether an object floats or sinks depends on its density. Density is how tightly packed the material inside an object is. Just because something is heavy does not mean it will sink. For example, ships are very heavy but not very dense, so they float.