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Our Pets
Objectives
To understand that materials have a variety of properties.
To predict and explore which material is most effective.
Resources
Different squares of materials for soaking up liquid (e.g. kitchen towel, tea towel, printer paper) | Large sheet of paper | Tray with water in the bottom.
Vocabulary
explore | investigate | observe | material | fair test
Today's Lesson
What to Get Ready
Ahead of the session, without your student noticing, pour a little bit of water onto the floor, where your student will notice it when they come into the room. Make sure to be working in a room with a wooden or tiled floor!
Introduction
As your student walks in, draw their attention to the water and explain that you accidently spilled the water, preparing a bowl of water for the pretend pet to drink.
Explain that something needs to be done to clear up the spillage on the floor.
Ask for suggestions and when your student mentions mopping it up, ask:
- ‘What shall we use?’
- ‘What sorts of things are best for soaking up water?’
Ask your student to list some materials and write them down for them in a list on the large sheet of paper. Then read each suggestion out and ask your student to choose the material they predict will be the best at soaking up the water spillage.
Show your student what materials you have available and the tray with water in the bottom. Ask them to have a go at mopping up the water in a tray using the different materials available. Demonstrate how to put a corner or an edge of the material into the water and to watch what the water soaks up.
Main Activity
Say: ‘Let's be scientists! They love to observe things really carefully to see what happens. Let's investigate the materials so we can work out which one is best for mopping up the spilled water.’
Give your student time to explore the materials with the water in their trays. Tell them it is just water, so it is safe to touch without gloves. Then, discuss together which materials they think will be more effective at mopping up the spill. Encourage them to draw on their experiences with the material and water in their tray. Decide which material to use and have a go at soaking up the spilled water. Ask your student to observe carefully.
Ask:
‘Is it working as well as we hoped or expected?’
‘Are you surprised by what is happening or is this what we predicted?’
Explore early scientific ‘fair testing’ by showing them an incorrect way of testing the materials which would give us incorrect data or information. For example, using a cloth to soak up a large puddle of water; then using a tea towel to soak up a very small puddle of water, and saying, ‘The tea towel is better at soaking up the water because it has soaked up all of it!’
Tease out from your student here that you didn’t test it fairly, as the puddles of water were different sizes, and you used two different materials, so we don’t know which was better at soaking up the water.