Pumpkins: Sink or Float

We have just concluded our pumpkin unit. It was full of writing, similes, science, art and of course a trip to the pumpkin patch!

What I want to share with you is the turn our unit took.  We were doing the pumpkin investigation page from this freebie by Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten.

The part that intrigued the students was the sink or float portion.  I pulled out a small tub of water and we tested our small pumpkins.  They floated but the bigger pumpkins did not. Why they ask?? Well we had to do some investigatiing.  We watched the Brain Pop Jr. Video on Sink or Float.  We needed more explanation so we did much more exploring. 

We looked for similarities and differences in the things that float and the things that sink.  We had a mini lesson with my power point on some very important vocabulary words that help us understand what floats and sinks.  I created some interactive journal pieces to go with our lesson.

After the Vocabulary Lesson we could hypothesize why the big pumpkin sank and the small pumpkin floated in the tub of water.  I told the students we must test our theory that it sank because there was not enough water in the tub to push the weight of the pumpkin up. We decided we needed a bigger body of water so I used my pool and took pictures to share the results of their theory.

They were RIGHT!! and they could explain why! The next step was to test out some of those other vocabulary words.  It was time to build some boats.

 They worked in groups of two to come up with the best design. Then we had to test those too.  We wanted to see how much weight they could hold.

Note to self: Next time don't use such a big piece of foil or you will be counting bears for days!!!

After we finished testing our boats we had to get back to our science journals to report our findings.

I took pictures of each of the students and their boats to include in this science journal entry. It will be a nice keepsake to remember what we learned about sink or float.  If you would like our mini-unit on sink or float you can find it here.