“Sea Monkey and Bob” by Aaron Reynolds and Debbie Ridpath Ohi
This is the story of two friends who each have their own fears that seem to plague them. Sea Monkey is afraid of sinking down to the bottom of the ocean and Bob is horribly afraid of floating to the surface of the ocean. The two each have their own panicked moments where they stress about examples of a bunch of items that sink or float before learning that their mutual fears can actually comfort each other. They learn that their fears are “comparable” and that the support of a friend is really all that you need.
The illustrations in this book are bright and fun and are sure to capture the attention of small children. Also, the text is riddled with a sense of humor while the points each friend makes are strong enough to make children wonder “what does float and what does sink?” Such a silly book that also sparks a little curiosity.
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Sink or Float? Experiment/Hands-on Activity Inspired by “Sea Monkey and Bob”
The theme of this book is friendship, however the main topic discussed is what items float and which items sink. As mentioned above, the points each friend makes are enough to get small children wondering and peak their curiosity. That is why this book makes a wonderful precursery read to a floating and sinking activity.
This activity couldn’t be any more simple and has been done for generations. However, it is so loved and continued because it is highly effective, not to mention fun for kids. I started by reading the book and discussing the concept of floating and sinking with my toddler. Then I asked him if he wanted to test some items in water to see if they floated or sunk. He responded with an enthusiastic “yes”!
We filled a substantial sized container with water and then together we walked around the house and selected ten items to test. This was one of my toddlers favorite parts, he loved that he had control in choosing the items. Then I printed out the activity recording sheet that I created for this activity (available for free download below) and we wrote down the list of items we selected in the appropriate column.
Then we were ready to experiment. One by one we chose an item to test and predicted whether or not it would float or sink and recorded our prediction on our sheet. (I of course did the writing in this activity because my little guy is too little. However, he did get a big kick out of the fact that we were recording everything.) After we placed the item in the water we recorded whether or not our prediction was correct and what the outcome ended up being. My little guy squealed with delight every time and squealed especially loud when he guessed correctly. It was oodles of fun. Even little sister joined in with dropping various items in the water to see the result.
This activity was a HUGE hit with my kids and I have the feeling that we will be doing it again soon. When we were finished with our ten items my little guy proceeded to go around the house gathering even more objects to test in the water. He was so eager that I had to make sure that what he was using was water proof. (Let’s just say I didn’t think the TV remote was a good candidate for this experiment. If you do this activity with your kids, you have been forewarned to supervise closely! 🙂 )
I hope you and your kids enjoy this activity as much as we did and that my printable helps make it an even more successful experience. The discussions that you could start with your child from this experiment about whether or not size mattered with floating and so forth are endless. Just go off of the level of understanding of your child.
Free Printable Recording Sheet: Float or Sink Printable
If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.
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