Using materials to mop up spills

We were reading a great story called Billy's bucket.

We saw the water in Billy's bucket being spilled (along with sea creatures).

We were wondering what we could use to mop up spills if any water was spilled in our class.

First of all we called out all the materials that we thought would be good for mopping up spills.

Teacher had samples of each.

We put these in order, from the one that we thought would be best at mopping spills to the one that would be the worst.

Teacher was wondering how we could check which was the best.

We noticed that there was a dry circle in the middle of all the water.  We think that the material that gives the biggest dry circle will be the material that mops up most of the spill, so this will be the best material for mopping spills.

Here's what we discovered:

We were a little worried about not having a truly fair test.

To have a fair test we decided that it would be best to cut each material into the same size.

We didn't want to do this (because it is a school towel) so instead we just looked at each material under the microscope which was very interesting.

Now we know that sponges and towels are best for mopping spills.

Thanks science!