Which material would be best to soak up a spillage?

On Monday we got a Twitter message from Mir's Mum. She knew we were learning about materials and wanted us to help her with a problem: she spilled some water while she was watering her plants and wondered whether we could find out which material would be the best to soak it up.

We had a lot of fun (as well as practicing our Science investigation skills) finding out the answer, as you can hopefully see from our photos. Thanks to Miss Longley for helping us to think about how to make our test fair, teaching us how to measure and record our results properly, and encouraging us to use the word 'absorbent'.

Which material do you think soaked up water the best: foil; kitchen roll; cling film; a cloth; or a sponge? Come and ask us to tell you what we found out!