What floats?

Ages 0 to 2 A grown-up reads and plays along · about 10 minutes

Read together

The duck floats. The spoon sinks.

Up, up, up! Down, down, down!

Do it

1. Put a few centimetres of water in a bowl. Gather large safe things: a bath duck, a plastic cup, a wooden spoon, a sponge, a big cork.
2. Let your child drop each one in. Say “floats” or “sinks”.
3. Do not use small items. Everything must be bigger than a toilet-paper tube is wide.
4. Stay within arm's reach, and empty the bowl when you finish.

Talk about it

• Which things float?
• Which sink?

For the grown-up

Do not worry about the “right” answer. The fun is in trying. Children often drop things again and again, which is how they learn.

Mark as done

← Previous lesson Next lesson →

Where this comes from

• American Academy of Pediatrics, “Prevention of Drowning” (policy statement), Pediatrics (2019)
• World Health Organization, UNICEF and World Bank Group, Nurturing Care for Early Childhood Development: A Framework (2018)

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.