1-Pager
Pre-k Grade  Project 5 weeks

Float, Float, Hooray! Build a Boat

Erica D
Updated
P-SCI.5a
IT-C.6b
P-SCI.6a
P-SCI.3a
IT-C.2b
+ 10 more
1-pager

Purpose

Students investigate what makes objects sink or float by collecting safe items, predicting and testing outcomes, sorting results, and exploring how material, weight, size, and shape affect floating. They collaborate to design, test, revise, and document a paper-sized floating carrier that can hold a weighted object, using pictures, stickers, discussion, and a class photo wall to reflect on changes. Through repeated hands-on trials, children build early science vocabulary, observation, communication, problem-solving, and self-directed learning skills. At the Little Boat, Big Discovery Fair, students share their design galleries and complete a final water test with families and Coast Guard visitors.

Learning goals

Students will predict, test, sort, and describe whether objects sink or float using words such as heavy, light, push, shape, and water. They will compare materials, sizes, weights, and clay shapes, then use picture-and-sticker data to explain what happened. Students will collaborate to build, test, revise, and retest a floating carrier smaller than 8.5 by 11 inches that can hold a weighted item. They will reflect on design changes and communicate their process and results to classmates, families, and Coast Guard visitors.

Standards
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.5a - (36 to 48 Months) With adult support, engages in simple investigations and experiments, such as building a "bridge" out of classroom materials and seeing how many dolls it will hold before it collapses. Records data with teacher assistance, mostly using pictures and marks on a page.
  • [Head Start] IT-C.6b - (8 to 18 Months) Explores how to make something happen again or how something works by doing actions over and over again, such as repeatedly filling a container and emptying it out.
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.6a - (36 to 48 Months) With adult assistance, analyzes and interprets data. Draws conclusions and provides simple descriptions of results. For example, an adult suggests counting how many dolls can be supported by a bridge before it breaks and along with the children counts, "One, two, three dolls. What happened when we put on the next doll?" A child says, "The bridge broke!"
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.3a - (36 to 48 Months) Sorts objects into groups based on simple attributes, such as color. With support, uses measurement tools to quantify similarities and differences of observable phenomena, such as when a child scoops sand into two containers and with adult assistance, determines which container holds more scoops.
  • [Head Start] IT-C.2b - (8 to 18 Months) Engages in purposeful actions to cause things to happen, such as making splashes in a puddle or rolling a ball to knock over a tower.
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.4a - (36 to 48 Months) Asks simple questions. Uses adults as primary resources to gather information about questions. With adult support and modeling, makes simple predictions, such as "I think that the golf ball will be heavier than the ping pong ball."
  • [Head Start] IT-C.9b - (8 to 18 Months) Explores how things fit together, how they fit with other things, and how they move through space, such as a ball thrown under a table.
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.3b - (48 to 60 Months) With increasing independence, sorts objects into groups based on more complex attributes, such as weight, sound, or texture. Uses measurement tools to assess the properties of and compare observable phenomena.
  • [Head Start] P-SCI.6b - (48 to 60 Months) With increasing independence, analyzes and interprets data and draws conclusions. With adult support, compares results to initial prediction and generates new questions or designs. For example, after putting multiple magnets together to create one magnet that is not strong enough to lift 10 paperclips, builds another and tries again. Communicates results, solutions, and conclusions in increasingly complex ways through multiple methods.
  • [Head Start] P-LIT.5a - (36 to 48 Months) Can answer basic questions about likes or dislikes in a book or story. Asks and answers questions about main characters or events in a familiar story. With modeling and support, makes predictions about events that might happen next.
Competencies
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.

Products

Students will create picture-based prediction and sorting charts showing which collected objects sink or float. Throughout testing, they will add photos and stickers to a change-over-time chart and photo wall to document materials, shapes, results, and revisions. Each child will build a floating carrier smaller than 8.5 by 11 inches that can hold a teacher-selected weight. At the Little Boat, Big Discovery Fair and Float and Tell Project Night, students will display early and final versions and test their creations for families and Coast Guard visitors.

Launch

Each child carries a baggie on a supervised Sink or Float Scavenger Splash to collect five safe items from the classroom or school. Before placing each item in a water tub, children predict whether it will sink or float, then test it and add a picture or sticker to a shared sorting chart. The class compares results using words such as sink, float, heavy, light, push, and water, then asks, “What makes something stay on top of the water instead of going down?” A brief Coast Guard photo or video message can challenge children to become floating-design investigators who will build, test, and improve a small carrier that holds a weight.

Exhibition

Host a “Little Boat, Big Discovery: Float and Tell Project Night” for families and Coast Guard visitors. Children display photos of their first design, revisions, and final floating carrier in a mini gallery, then explain one change they made using words such as sink, float, heavy, and light. At a hands-on water station, each child tests whether their design can float while carrying a weighted item, and guests celebrate the results and ask what worked best.