Sink or Float lesson plan

1. Sink or Float?
A LESSON ABOUT WHY BOATS FLOAT.
Students will develop and create boats and test if they will float. They will become
authors and write a story about their boat. The ending will reveal if the boat sank or
Float.

2. Common Core Standards
 K.G.1 Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes,
and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such
as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to.
 K.W.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating and writing to
compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what
they are writing about and supply some information about the
topic.
 K.W.6. With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of
digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in
collaboration with peers.

3. Active Learning
 Children will be given a ball of clay. They will be told to make it float
like a boat does in water. They will be given 20 minutes to make their
boat. They will be given supplies such as sails, anchors, etc.,
whatever they believe makes a boat float. After the children
believe they have made a boat that will float, the students will
watch a video on what makes a boat float. Then they will be given
another 10 minutes to fix or make changes to their boat from the
information in the video.
 The next day the students will create a storybook about their boat.
They will come up with a name for their boat and create a short
story.
 Before they finish the story, students will be test the boats and then
come up with an ending to the story. Telling if the boat floated or
sank.

4. Constructive Learning
 Students will be creating clay boats. Before they finish their boats,
they will make a prediction if the boats will sink or if they will float.
 If the boat sinks, the students will need to decide what went wrong
and how they can fix it.
 They will try to fix it and observe what is happening to their boats.
They will be able to discuss with their peers about issues that may be
causing the boat to sink.

5. Cooperative Learning
 Students will working in groups of two. They will make their own
boats, but they will be able to talk and make decisions about their
boats together.
 Students will work with their partners to spell words and make proper
sentences.

6. Student Expectations
 Students will create a boat out of clay.
 Students will create a book from www.storyjumper.com to go along
with their boat.
 The books need to include:
 A name for their boat
 A title for their book
 At least one picture per page
 At least three pages for their book that include positional words from a list
provided.
 A conclusion to their book that tells if the boat sank or floated.

7. Materials Needed
 Book Captain Kidd's Crew Experiments with Sinking and Floating by
Mark Weakland
 Boat Materials
 Clay
 Paper , straws, fabric, supplies for decoration
 Tub of Water for testing the boats
 Computers
 Storyjumper link on the computer
 Link to youtube video on sinking and floating

8. Learning Outcome
 After completing this lesson, students will be able to understand
what makes boats float.
 The weight doesn’t matter as much as the shape of the boat.
 The clay needs to be flat and large rather than shaped likes a ship or
canoe.
 Students will learn how to type complete sentences and how to put
pictures in a story book on storyjumper.
 Students will understand what a prediction is and they will be able
to explain why their boat didn’t float, if that was the conclusion of
their boat.

9. Procedure
 Day 1-Read the book about sinking and floating. Have a tub of
water and have students make predictions about what will sink and
what will float.
 Day 2- The students will get into groups of two or three. Give each
student a ball of clay. Tell them to remember the shapes of the items
that floated the day before. Give them 20 minutes to create their
boat. Encourage them to talk with their group partners to help
them with ideas for their boats. They may add any materials that
they think a boat needs to float.
 Day 3- Show the youtube video about boats and why they float.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX0huEz0QUM After watching
the video, the students will be given a chance to make any
changes to their boats.

10. Procedure Continue
 Day 4- Students will be working on computers to make a story book
on storyjumper.com. They will need to have at least three pages.
The teacher will need to show them how to use the website. They
will need to name their boat. They will leave the end undone until
they test their boats the following day. They will need to use at least
three words from the positional word list below:
 Left, right, across, over, next to, below, under, behind
 Day 5-Test day. Before the boats are put into the water, each
student will make a prediction about their boat. Will it sink or will it
float? Each students boat will be put into the tub of water and will
be observed to see if it sinks or if it floats. After the test, each student
will get in their group and try to brainstorm if they can make their
boat float by changing it. Then retest it. They will have three times to
retest.

11. Procedure Conclusion
 Day 6-Students will finish their computer storybook with the
conclusion of their boat.
 Day 7-Each book will be read to the class. Then a class discussion will
be held to see why the boats that floated did and why the boats
that sank did. If all of the boats sank, the teacher should provide a
boat that does float to spark discussion.

12. Assessment
4 3 2 1 0
Students
completed two
boats.
Students
completed one
boat.
Students did not
complete a boat.
Students had a
storybook with at
least three pages.
Students had a
storybook with at
least two pages.
Students had a
storybook with at
least one page.
Students only had
a title page.
Students did not
complete a book.
Students had not
grammar errors.
Students had two
grammar errors.
Students had four
grammar errors.
Students has six
grammar errors.
Students had
eight or more
grammar errors.
Students boat
was able to float.
Student was in a
group that a boat
floated.
Student boat
didn’t float.
Students used
creative
sentences in their
story. 4 adjectives
Students used
some creativity. 3
adjectives
Students wrote
simple sentences.
2 adjectives
Students wrote
incomplete
sentences. 1
adjective
No sentences
were written.