It has been so cold here that we have hardly been able to get out and really enjoy any outside time. Even with the sun out the wind chill factor has left us freezing. I decided to bring some water fun indoors.
We sat out to see if we could make our own boat. We first examined Selena’s bath time boat to get some ideas of what might make it float. Now doesn’t that just look exciting to sit and watch that green boat float? I stepped it up a bit by placing some rocks in the boat and Selena had to try to guess if the boat would sink or float from the weight.
After this fun, I then made Selena think of something we had in our home that we could mold into a boat shape and make it float. I thought for sure she was going to ask for clay, but she surprised me and asked for foil. I went and got the foil and gave her a piece. She had to mold it into a boat and make it float.
This was her basic design. Now came the challenge would it float when rocks were put in side it?
Oh No! It tilted too far to one side, and started taking in water. Selena examined her boat and decided maybe it was too heavy on that one side. (I love the look of concentration on her face in the above picture) I gave her a small piece of foil and she molded it along the one side to make it heavier on that side too. Well, now we had to try it out again. Would it float, hold the weight of the rocks, and not sink?
She had to make a few adjustments along the way, flatten out the bottom more, and make sure all the seams were tightly closed, but yes, she finally ended up with a boat that floated even with the weight of more rocks then we had put in her tub toy.
Then she decided it was bath time, since I wouldn’t let her just sit there at the table and play for hours with the boat. We did have a lot of fun figuring this out and now Selena is looking forward to summer so she can try to make many more of these in her pool.
I bet she loved this fun activity. She looks so much older lately, doesn't she? There is a Magic School Bus about this subject, isn't there?
ReplyDeleteI believe there is Phyllis, though Selena doesn't like the Magic School Bus series. I know that Sesame Street did an episode about this subject, though that episode was on balancing the boat.
DeleteWhat an awesome problem solving activity. Selena did so well!
ReplyDeleteThank you, she had a lot of fun with this too.
DeleteI've wanted to do that project for a while, because I'm really curious what my kids would do with it.
ReplyDeleteHow hard was it to add in the two step commenting and such?
Selena had a lot of fun with this. It is not hard at all to get the two step commenting. I emailed you how to change your settings.
DeleteR is doing sink and float experiments in school next week. Selena looks like she had a lot of fun with this.
ReplyDeleteShe really did have fun with this. We are looking forward to summer when we can do much more of this.
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