- bowls of water
- funnels
- pipettes or eyedroppers
- plastic cups
- soda bottles
- sponges
- squirt bottles
- toy water pumps or recycled soap dispensers
- turkey basters
- baster
- pour
- pump
- squirt
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
Language/L.PK.MA.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, listening to books read aloud, activities, and play.
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Language Development/Expressive Language: Uses language to express ideas and needs.
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2: Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Science and Technology/Technology and Engineering 24: Demonstrate and explain the safe and proper use of tools and materials.
Talk Together: Squirt and Pump
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: You can use different objects to move water
ELA Focus Skills: Listening and Speaking, Vocabulary
Display the materials for children to see. This time, include and introduce pumps and basters. Hold up the pumps and basters for children to see. Invite children to first touch and explore them; then ask, How do you think you can use these objects to move water? Invite children to act out how to use them if they have seen or used them before. Then explain what the tools are and show children how the tools are used.
- Say, This is a baster, it looks like another tool we have used before. Ask children if they remember using an eyedropper before and how they used it. Then ask, How is the turkey baster different than an eyedropper? Which one would fill a cup faster?
- Say, This is a pump. Demonstrate how to use the pump to move water. Then ask, How is the water pump like the squirt bottle? What makes the water pump special?
Educator Tip: Younger children may need help using the baster. Show them how to submerge the tip of the baster under water before squeezing and releasing the bulb to fill it. Help them practice doing this a few times to help them develop their fine motor skills.