My friend Megan is here today with a fun science activity perfect for preschoolers!
Oh the joys of simple science experiments! There’s a feeling of awesomeness that bubbles up inside you when you are uncovering answers and testing your hypotheses–it’s so empowering.
And while there are tons of super cool science experiments out there it’s the simple ones that end up capturing kids attention and getting repeated again and again.
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One of my kids’ favorites from a very young age was the classic sink or float experiment. They performed it many times–in the sink, in the water table, in the bath–testing the buoyancy of their toys and lots of other items around the house.
That was the inspiration for this sink or float discovery bottle!
Sink or Float Discovery Bottle
- plastic water bottle
- small items to test
- water
- hot glue (optional)
Let kids choose small items from around the house to test in the discovery bottle. We decided to use foam cubes, sequins, and small pieces of pipe cleaners.
Add them to the bottle and fill it with water. If you are planning to have young kids play with the discovery bottle unsupervised you can hot glue the top shut. We left ours unglued so we could add more items to it in the future.
Ask kids to predict which items they think will sink and which ones they think will float and why. Then shake it up and see what happens!
In our bottle the foam cubes floated to the top while the sequins and the pipe cleaners sunk to the bottom. This experiment is such an easy way to put kids in charge of their learning…and make them fall in love with science at the same time.
But don’t stop there! There are so many more simple science experiments you can do.
One of our favorites is the Walking Water Experiment. It’s so easy and unbelievably cool. Add it to your list to try!
About Megan:
Megan is the creator of Coffee Cups and Crayons, a blog full of simple fun and learning. She believes that kids’ activities don’t have to be complicated to be fun and that learning is better with play.
Ashley Donati says
This is a great idea! My three year old would love this.
Augustus says
Great experiment. Tanks for sharing this. I also have a blog dedicated mainly to science experiments for kids, check it out here