Lesson plan Kindergarten Science
Paint Water at Quillbrook Kindergarten: A Clean Drain Lesson
A 35-minute kindergarten lesson at a fictional school where students compare clear and painty rinse water, learn where the drain goes, and make a wipe-first rule sign.
Objectives
- Students will tell the difference between clear rinse water and paint rinse water by looking at two jars.
- Students will describe where water goes after it leaves the classroom sink drain.
- Students will draw and dictate one rule that keeps paint out of the water leaving the school.
Vocabulary
Key words: rinse, drain, clear, cloudy, rule, clean
Teacher overview
Quillbrook Kindergarten is a fictional school whose art shelf sits right beside the classroom sink, so every painting day ends with brushes going straight under a running tap. This lesson slows that routine down. Students look at two sealed jars, one holding clear rinse water and one holding water a loaded brush was swished in, and then trace on chart paper where the sink water goes after it disappears down the drain. They finish by drawing a rule sign for the art shelf that shows the brush being wiped on a cloth first. Many students at this age treat water as gone once it goes down a drain, which is why the chart-paper trace in the second step matters. The pipe has to be drawn leaving the room and arriving somewhere real before a rule about brushes makes sense.
Fill and cap the two jars before class so students compare them by looking rather than by making the mess themselves.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Hold up the two capped jars side by side, the clear one first. Ask students to describe each jar in one word. Collect words such as clear, clean, dirty, cloudy, blue, and muddy on chart paper, and write them in two columns under simple drawings of the two jars.
Where does it go (8 min): Ask the class what happens to the paint jar's water if it is poured down the classroom sink. Draw the sink on chart paper, then draw the pipe going down through the floor, out under the playground, and along under the street to a building you label as the water cleaning plant. Explain that people work at that plant to take the dirt out of the water before it goes back to a river. Tell students that the paint does not disappear, and that keeping paint out of the pipe in the first place gives the cleaning crew less to take out.
Wipe-first practice (10 min): Load a brush with paint and demonstrate the routine in three moves: wipe the brush on a paper towel until the towel stops picking up color, swish it in the shared rinse bucket, and only then rinse briefly at the tap. Have students take turns at the sink doing the same three moves with a loaded brush while the rest of the class counts the moves out loud with you.
Handout (7 min): Pass out the handout and read each item aloud, one at a time. Students may answer by pointing to a jar, by telling you an answer, or by drawing. For item 4, take dictation for any student who is not yet writing words.
Rule sign and formative check (5 min): Ask each student to hold up their drawing and say the one rule they chose in a full sentence, such as "Wipe the brush first." Listen to every student. If more than four students give a rule that has nothing to do with paint or the drain, gather the class at the chart paper and retrace the pipe from the sink to the cleaning plant before dismissal.
Student Handout
- Look at the two jars. One is clear. One has paint in it. Which jar has paint in it?
- Paint water goes down the sink drain. Where does it go next?
- A brush is full of paint. What can you do to the brush first, before it goes in the water?
- Draw the art sink. Draw the wipe cloth beside it. Tell what the cloth is for.
- Tell one rule for the art sink in our room.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: The cloudy jar. The jar the loaded brush was swished in looks colored and cloudy, while the clear jar lets students see straight through it.
- Answer: Into a pipe that carries it to the water cleaning plant. Accept any answer that says the water travels in a pipe, goes under the ground, or goes to a place where workers clean it.
- Answer: Wipe it on a cloth or paper towel. Accept any answer naming wiping, blotting, or scraping the extra paint off the brush before rinsing.
- Answer: A drawing of the sink and cloth with a dictated sentence such as "The cloth takes the paint off my brush." Accept any labeled drawing whose dictated line names the cloth and says it removes paint or keeps paint out of the water.
- Answer: Accept any workable art-sink rule the student can state and defend, such as wiping the brush first, using the rinse bucket before the tap, or turning the tap off while scrubbing. A rule that has nothing to do with paint or the drain should be redirected with the prompt "What is your rule about the paint?"
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the two jars to hold at the start so the comparison is a hands-on one, and let them point to the correct jar rather than naming it. Before item 3, walk them through the three-move routine once more at the sink with your hand over theirs on the brush.
Extension
Ask these students to add a second panel to their rule sign showing what happens if nobody wipes the brushes, and to dictate a caption for that panel. Have them post both panels at the art shelf and read the captions to a visiting class.
ELL supports
Pre-teach clear, cloudy, rinse, and drain by pointing at the two jars, the running tap, and the drain opening in that order. Provide the sentence frame "First I ___ the brush" with small drawings of a cloth, a bucket, and a tap so students can point to the step they mean, and accept a pointing answer for items 1 through 3.
Extensions
Repeat the two-jar comparison with the class rinse bucket at the end of the next painting day so students can see how much color one afternoon of wiping kept out of the sink. Ask the school office whether a wastewater treatment operator from the local plant would visit or send photographs of the screens and tanks inside the plant the class drew on the chart paper, which gives students a real face for the work that happens at the end of their pipe.