Teaching Float and Sink with Coke Floats

This past week we celebrated the 50th Day of School. While most kids, or even their parents, have no connection to the "50's", we still celebrate by making coke floats. I told the kids it was a way to celebrate them coming to school for 50 days!

I wanted to connect this fun activity to science and math, so here is what we did. Be sure and read all the way to the bottom where you can grab everything needed to do this lesson with your kids! It's FREE!

First I read the kids a book about float and sink. The book was great to explain why things floated (air pockets).

Then we read the Coke Floats Recipe Book. This is also a great introduction to nonfiction writing (how to.)

You might want to consider NOT reading the title page as this might give away the point of the lesson. I just told them we were going to make a special snack.

I made the recipe into a book with each page have one of the steps.

After reading the book, I asked them if they thought the ice cream would sink to the bottom of the cup or float to the top. I wanted the kids to see we were being scientist. I told them that scientist had questions, and that they used all they knew to make a prediction about what they thought would happen (hypothesis).

Since I did this activity in both prek and k, I made some simple modifications.  In Prek, we made a group graph. I asked each child what they thought would happen to the ice cream.  The teacher and I worked together and she added their photos to the ice cream as they made their predictions.

In the kindergarten class, we divided the class into groups. I worked with one group at a time.  In each group, I asked each child what they thought would happen to the ice cream.  As they answered the question, they put tally marks on their graphing paper. Then, we used the tally marks to create our graph. With both the kindergarten and prek kids we talked about our predictions and what the class thought.

Then, we made the coke floats. I put a scoop of ice cream into their cups.

Then, they each poured their own soda, SLOWLY, into the cup.

After everyone had soda in their cups, we looked to see what had happened to the ice cream. It' floats!

Now for their favorite part...drink it up!

With both groups we came back together and talked about our predictions. I wanted a book about making ice cream, I do have one but could't find it, to show kids how ice cream machines add air particles as it whips the mixture. Since I didn't have the book, I just told them about it.
You can grab the recipe books and both types of graphs by filling in the box below! Happy 50th Day!