Lesson plan Grade 1 Engineering & Design

Sumac Street's Paint Sink Problem: A Grade 1 Settling Jar Design

A grade 1 engineering lesson where students name the art room paint sink problem, watch paint water settle in jars, and design a jar that keeps grit out of the drain.

Grade: Grade 1
Subject: Engineering & Design
Material: Lesson plan
Time: 40 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: 2 clear jars with lids, quart size, washable tempera paint and a paintbrush, two spoonfuls of clean sand or fine soil, a plastic spoon and a small strainer, a shallow pan to work over, paper, pencils, and crayons

Standards

K-2-ETS1-1 NGSS

Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

How this material aligns: Students ask questions about the cloudy art-room rinse water, observe two jars left to stand, and state the paint sink problem as something people at Sumac Street want to change.

All materials for K-2-ETS1-1 →

W.1.1 Common Core ELA

Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.

How this material aligns: Each student draws and writes or dictates an opinion naming the jar they would put under the art sink, gives one reason for that choice, and ends with a closing sentence.

All materials for W.1.1 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will state the art-room paint sink problem in one sentence.
Students will describe what happens to paint grit in water that is left standing.
Students will draw a settling jar and write or dictate an opinion with one reason for choosing it.

Vocabulary

Sedimentation: Sedimentation is the step where water sits almost still in a big basin so the heavy clumps of dirt can sink to the bottom. The cleaner water on top then moves on to the filters.
Clarifier: A clarifier is a big round or rectangular tank where water sits calmly so solids can sink to the bottom and be scraped away. Treatment plants use clarifiers at more than one stage of cleaning.

Teacher overview

Classrooms where students paint usually have a sink with a colored ring around the drain, which makes the problem in this lesson a familiar one. At the make-believe Sumac Street School, brush water goes straight down the art-room drain and out toward the creek behind the field. Students define that problem in their own words, then watch what happens when the same cloudy water is left to stand in a jar: the heavy grit sinks and the water above it turns clearer. Treatment plants use that same settling step in large tanks, and a first grader can describe it accurately as "the heavy bits go to the bottom." Results here are what students see in the jars rather than numbers, so this lesson has no answer key.

Set up the two jars at the very start of the lesson so they have the full period to settle. Keep one jar still and shake the second one every few minutes, which gives the class a comparison.

Procedure

Notice the problem (6 min): Rinse a paint-loaded brush into a jar of clear water in front of the class and let students describe what they see. Add a spoonful of sand so there is visible grit, stir, and set the jar down where nobody will bump it. Fill a second jar the same way, put on its lid, shake it, and set it beside the first. Tell students you will come back to both jars later.

Say the problem in one sentence (6 min): Explain that at Sumac Street School the art sink drains toward the creek behind the field, and that fish and frogs live there. Ask what the class would want to change. Collect three or four answers on chart paper, then agree on one sentence and post it, such as: "We want the paint bits to stay out of the creek."

Look at the jars (10 min): Bring both jars to the rug. Ask students to look without touching and to name a difference. Guide them to notice the layer at the bottom of the still jar and the clearer water above it. Keep shaking the second jar so the class sees that moving water holds the grit. Introduce two words in plain language: settle, meaning the heavy bits sink and stay; and still, meaning nothing stirs the water. Ask the formative check question and take a hand count: "Which jar has clearer water at the top, the still one or the shaken one?" You want nearly the whole class choosing the still jar; if more than four or five students choose the shaken jar, place both jars side by side against a white paper and look again together.

Sketch a settling jar (10 min): Each student draws a jar to sit under the art sink. Require three parts on every drawing: where the paint water goes in, where the grit rests, and where the clearer water leaves. Circulate and ask each student which part of their drawing keeps the grit from leaving with the water. Students who finish early may add a lid or a handle and explain why.

Write the opinion (6 min): Post a sentence frame and read it aloud: "I would put the ___ jar under the art sink because ___." Students write or dictate one opinion sentence, add one reason, and finish with a closing line such as "That is my plan." Scribe for students who dictate.

Close (2 min): Read three opinions aloud. Point at the posted problem sentence and ask whether the class thinks their jars would help. Save the still jar overnight and look again in the morning.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Provide a printed jar outline with three dotted boxes already placed for the in, the rest, and the out parts, so drawing turns into labeling. Offer two picture choices for the opinion, one showing a still jar and one showing a shaken jar, and let the student circle a choice before dictating the reason aloud.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask these students to add a strainer or a screen to their drawing and explain, in one spoken sentence, what the strainer catches that settling alone would miss. They can also plan where the settled grit should go once the jar is full, which is the question a real plant operator answers about the sludge in a settling tank.

ELL supports

Pre-teach four words at the jar itself, with gestures the class copies: paint, water, sink, bottom. Post the two jars with a photograph or drawing card beside each, labeled still and shaken, so the comparison holds without English. Accept the opinion sentence in a student's home language and add the English words for jar and because together while scribing.

Extensions

Ask the custodian or the art teacher where the art sink drain actually goes at your school and share the answer with the class the next day, since the honest answer at many schools is that it joins the sewer rather than a creek, which is worth telling students plainly. If a nearby stream or pond is walkable, look at the water after a rain with adults supervising and students standing well back from the edge, and talk about what makes it cloudy.