Light vs. Heavy: Science and Language Extension
This is an example activity to pair with teaching the concepts of “heavy” and “light” as you come across it in books or language lessons.
An interactive, hands on activity like this can really help to make the concepts come alive! You can make your own paper visual to go with this activity, or you can grab mine below.
Supplies:
Bucket, Tub or Clear Bin
Water
Heavy Items (e.g. coins, a rock etc.)
Light Items (e.g., feather, leaves etc.)
Paper
Pencils or Crayons
Steps
Gather your supplies and the items you will be using for this experiment.
Write “heavy” on one half of the paper, and “light” on the other half.
Draw a squiggly line in the middle of your paper to represent water.
Teach the difference between light and heavy. Heavy items weigh more, and they sink in water. Light items weigh less and float on top of water.
Pick up each item one at a time and discuss. Do you think it is heavy or light? Do you think this item will float in the water or sink in the water?
Carefully drop each item in the water and see what it does. Draw the item, cut it out from our handout, or write the name of it. “Under” the water on your page if it was heavy, and “above” the water on your page if it was light.
Talk about what you saw, and repeat for all the items!