Multisensory Monday- Will a Soap Boat Float?

Posted by Brainspring on 8th Dec 2014

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Multisensory Monday!  Today’s activity is a cross between a science experiment and a phonics multisensory activity.  I honestly didn’t know if it was going to work until I tried it this morning.  The idea came from one of the teachers at a training recently.

Her keyword activity idea for oa was to make a boat out of a bar of soap.  She insisted that Ivory soap floats and pointed out how fitting the activity would be because it incorporates the keyword “boat” and also two other words that use the oa spelling pattern: “soap” and “float”.  Although I had never heard it before, I guess Ivory soap’s claim to fame is that it floats.  In fact, that was part of their ad campaign decades ago.

I had to try it out!

 

Soap Boat

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This is a simple activity/science experiment that goes perfectly with Phonics First Foundations Lesson 3-16 oa.  You’ll need a bar of Ivory soap, a popsicle stick, paper, scissors, glue stick, marker and a bowl of water.

 

 

Students make the boat by cutting out a sail, decorating it with oa, and gluing it to the popsicle stick.  Then push the popsicle stick a few centimeters into the soap, just deep enough so it stays, not all the way through.

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Make some predictions about whether or not the soap boat will float.  And then release it in the water!

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Even Better

This would be a wonderful activity to take even further.  Here is a science experiment designed to test the question, “Does Soap Float?”

http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/does-soap-float/

You may also want to show your students an old Ivory soap commercial, where Ivory soap floating is part of the advertisement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm0hCwkfgWk

 

Please let me know how it goes if your students do the experiment!

Also, please comment here if you try this with other brands of soap.  Which ones work and which ones don’t?

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