Published March 4, 2025 Written by Rebecca Smith

Early years science: Floating and sinking activity

This hands-on early years science floating and sinking activity encourages children to experiment with sinking and floating by testing different objects in water.

Through playful exploration, children will predict, observe, and discuss what happens, supporting curiosity and scientific thinking.

Learning aims

There are many different learning outcomes of this activity. It’ll inspire curiosity as children explore which objects sink or float in water. It’s also great for developing language skills as children describe what they see and introduce new vocabulary. Not only that, it will encourage scientific thinking as children ask questions, test ideas, predict and make observations.

Resources you’ll need

For this activity you’ll need a water tray and water, a variety of natural objects – leaves, twigs, pinecones, stones, feathers and conkers, plus everyday items such as wooden spoon, plastic bottle lid, sponge, toy boat, metal spoon, cork, paperclip, coin.

Early years science: Floating and sinking activity guide

Start the activity by inspiring curiosity as you show the children the objects and ask, “What do you think will happen when we put these in water?”
Demonstrate with an item and introduce vocabulary ‘sink’ and ‘float’
Invite children to choose an item to put into the water. Before they place it in, ask them what they think will happen, e.g. “Will it sink to the bottom, or will it stay on top and float?”
Observe together and take turns to choose different items to experiment with exploring the items which sink and float
Introduce key vocabulary such as heavy, light, floating, sinking, water, deep, shallow
See if the children can find something in the setting that floats and something that sinks
For older children encourage discussion about their experimenting to extend their thinking.

How can you extend this activity?

Take learning outside and encourage children to collect a selection of natural and everyday outdoor items, such as leaves, sticks, pinecones, pebbles, flowers, feathers, wellies, buckets, and small toys. You can then ask them to predict whether each object will sink or float and sort them accordingly.

Support children to take turns dropping the items into water and observe the results and discuss any surprises to encourage critical thinking, such as by saying, “I wonder why this didn’t sink?”. Talk about what the floating objects have in common and why some items sink, reinforcing the learning.

Looking for more early years science support?

Inspire children to learn about the world through scientific experimentation with Little Scientists Leading the Way online course for early years practitioners.

Back to myNDNA

Disclaimer: Activities with children must always be risk assessed, including for allergies or choking. Children must always have adequate supervision. Resources and materials must always be appropriate for children’s age and stage of development.

Activities
science