Noah's Ark investigation

This afternoon we have been exploring materials and testing their properties. First we talked about different materials we knew and the properties they had, for example, metal is hard, glass is transparent and fabric is soft. We talked about why some materials are good for certain jobs - you wouldn't want a metal window because you wouldn't be able to see through it! And a chair wouldn't be good if it was made of paper - it wouldn't be strong enough to hold you! Would you like to have clothes that were made of wood? No!

We talked about which properties we wanted in an ark. We decided we wanted something strong, so it wouldn't break, and something that would float. In the water tray we tested 6 things to see if they floated or sank. First we had to make predictions. Sometimes we were right, and sometimes we were surprised by what happened! We recorded our predictions and our results on our investigation sheet. Look at our photos - can you work out which things floated and which sank?

We talked about what other properties we would need from a material used to make an ark - we wanted something strong and waterproof! In our child initiated time we explored lots of things in the water tray. We tested containers to see if they sank when we put water in, we tested the playdough to see if it would float if we made it into different shapes, we tested to see if things were waterproof and we made some arks and tested to see how many animals and people we could fit in!