Christmas Science - Sinking and Floating

We’ve done lots of sinking and floating activities before, but today 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 waterproof them first! )

Christmas – Sink or Float

A large container

Water

Decorations

Investigation

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

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

Were the predictions correct? If not you could 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!

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.