
Floating and sinking – Te tere me te totohu Activity
Provide a safe place for tamariki to play with things that float and sink in water.
Why do it?
So that tamariki can:
- enjoy a play and learning activity indoors or outside
- have an opportunity to predict and test ideas
- experience the fun and soothing effects of water play
- strengthen expressive language by building their vocabulary of terms related to floating, sinking and water play.
How to do it
- Make sure the situation is safe for your tamaiti. Water play needs close supervision at all times.
- You’ll need some water in a container — for example, a bath, basin, bowl, bucket, puddle or rock pool.
- You’ll need things to test — ask your tamaiti to help collect some nearby things that are okay to get wet.
- Items from home could be a wooden block, a plastic lid, a peg, a cork, a sock, a metal spoon, a flower or some leaves.
- At the beach you could collect small stones, shells, sticks, feathers, pumice, some seaweed or leaves.
- Have them hold each thing one at a time and ask them what they think will happen when they put it into the water.
- Ask them, ‘Why do you think that happened?’
- Try all the things you collected to see what floats and what sinks — you could help them to group the items.
- If your tamaiti is still interested, you can think and talk about what the things that float or sink have in common with each other.
- If you’re playing in a bucket, bowl or a bath, explore what happens to the water level when something big sinks to the bottom. If you can make a mark on the bucket before and after, you can measure the difference the sinking object makes to the water level. This is called ‘water displacement’.
- In the bath, notice what happens to the water level when someone gets in (and out) of the water.
- Share picture books such as, Who Sank the Boat?, Mr Archimedes’ Bath and Alexander’s Outing, all by Pamela Allen.
Will the […] float ? |
Ka taea e te [...] te tere? |
The […] won’t float |
E kore te [...] e tere? |
Will the […] sink ? |
Ka taea te [...] te totohu? |
The […] won’t sink |
E kore te [...] e totohu |
Bath |
Tāpu kaukau |
Bucket |
Pākete |
Puddle |
Tōhihi |
Basin |
Peihana |
Bowl |
Kumete |
Rock pool |
Papawai |
Stone |
Kōhatu |
Shell |
Anga |
Stick |
Rākau |
Feather |
Awe |
Seaweed |
Rimurimu |
Leaves |
Rau |
Wooden cube |
Rākau tapaono |
Plastic lid |
Taupoki parahitiki |
Plastic peg |
Tīmau parahitiki |
Wooden peg |
Tīmau rākau |
Cork |
Takawiri |
Spoon |
Koko |
The feather can float |
Ka taea e te awe te tere |
The feather won’t sink |
E kore te awe e totohu |
The stone will sink |
Ka taea te kōhatu e totohu |
The stone won’t float |
E kore te kōhatu e tere |