Pipettes in Preschool: Fun Science and Fine-Motor Activities

When preschoolers hold a pipette, science becomes a fun hands-on experience, and their hands get stronger as they squeeze and explore! While scientists and researchers use pipettes to measure and transfer liquids with precision, pipettes in preschool become a tool for building fine motor skills. To introduce pipettes to my young learners, I first teach them how to use this tool properly, then provide a variety of engaging activities.

To see more about introducing scientific tools, check out my post on Introducing Preschoolers to Magnifying Fun.

In this post, you’ll find helpful tips for teaching pipette use, creative activity ideas, and a hands-on science experiment that kept my class excited and eager to explore.

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What is Pipette?

A pipette is a simple tool used to transfer liquid from one container to another. Is it the same as an eyedropper? For our purposes, yes. Based on your students’ fine motor skills, you can use either pipettes or droppers for these activities.

With practice, preschoolers can grasp the concept of squeezing and releasing the pipette to move small amounts of liquid, making it a fantastic tool for hands-on science experiments. Since we know children learn best through play and exploration, all of our activities with pipettes should foster fine-motor fun.

How to Introduce Pipettes in Preschool

Before jumping into water activities with the pipette, I take 3-5 minutes to show the children the parts of the pipette and demonstrate how it’s used. This provides them with the vocabulary for the pipette’s parts and gives them a chance to practice the fine motor skill of squeezing and releasing the bulb. I show a pipette during circle time, when we are sitting together on the rug, away from all liquids. 

1. Introduce the Pipette: Point out the bulb at the top, the tube that holds the liquid, and the hole at the bottom where the liquid will come in and out. Hand out pipettes to the children so that they can follow along.
2. Demonstrate How to Hold the Pipette: Show how to hold the pipette by gently pinching the bulb between your thumb and fingers. Encourage the children to hold it the same way.  Note: For children using large basters or droppers, they will use their whole hand to grasp the bulb. Let them practice squeezing and releasing the bulb, feeling the air coming out of the tube.
3. Fill the Pipette: With a cup of water, demonstrate how to place the tube of the pipette in the water and squeeze the bulb. I say, “Squeeze,” then tell them, “Let go and watch the water go in,” as the tube fills with water.
4. Release the Water: After the pipette is filled with water, tell the children to squeeze the bulb again to release the water and watch it drip out. “Squeeze again. Watch the water drip out.”
5. Practice Time: Once you’ve practiced this “dry run,” set out cups of water on trays to catch the drips and let them practice this fun new skill! You can color the water, but I usually save that for another day.

Pipette Activities

Once your preschoolers have had some practice using pipettes with a cup of water, you can start adding pipettes around the classroom. Here are a few indoor and outdoor activities to get you started.

Indoor Activities

Give children an empty cup and a cup of water. Challenge them to transfer the water from the full cup to the empty one using only a pipette. Color the water to make the activity more interesting. Simple, yet effective fine motor practice.

Give each child a small ice cube in a dish, and let them use pipettes to squirt warm water on the ice, watching how it melts. This is a simple but fun way to explore states of matter.

Pipettes are ideal for teaching children about caring for plants. Set up small cups of water and let them water classroom plants. If you have a variety of plants in the room, your students can learn that some plants need more water than others.

Set up a tray with small containers of colored water and and cups of water. Let children transfer colors from small container to the cups with water using pipettes, creating new colors. Start with two primary colors and add more over time.

Add a small amount of water to a shallow sensory bin with sponges, small plastic animals, or objects. Let children use pipettes to squirt water onto the objects and explore how different materials absorb or repel water.

Give children watercolor paints and let them transfer drops onto absorbent paper. They can create beautiful, process art while learning about colors.

Draw large shapes on the sidewalk with chalk. Children can use pipettes to squeeze colored water onto the designs, filling them in with of color.

Draw lines or letters with sidewalk chalk. Children can use pipettes to trace the lines or write the letters.

Draw a target on the sidewalk with chalk. Have the children stand over the target and use their pipettes to squeeze water into the center of it.

After it rains, give children small cups filled with colored water. Let them drip the colored water into the puddles and watch the colors swirl and mix.

Let the children water plants in the garden using pipettes, teaching them to squeeze and release gently to deliver just a little water at a time. Excellent for watering new seedlings and small plants, but, if you don’t have a garden, let them water any plants around the school.

Safety tip: Keep an eye on water play outside to make sure children aren’t slipping on wet surfaces.

As the children practice squeezing and releasing, encourage them to notice details, like the sound of the pipette or how much water fills it. For more on building observation skills, try my games: What’s Missing and Listen Like a Scientist.

When preschoolers use pipettes, they’re doing more than just having fun. Here’s a breakdown of the essential skills they develop:

• Fine Motor Skills: Squeezing and releasing a pipette strengthens the small muscles in children’s hands, improving their grip. This is important for future tasks like writing and using scissors.
• Hand-eye Coordination: Pipettes require children to focus on aiming and transferring liquid between containers, which helps develop coordination
• Science and Math Concepts: Using pipettes introduces concepts like measurement, volume, and even cause and effect as children experiment with the amount of liquid they move.
• Problem-Solving Skills: Children learn to control the flow of liquid and figure out how to squeeze the pipette to achieve their desired result.

Classroom Experiment Using Red Cabbage Juice

One of the most engaging activities I’ve done with my three-year-olds, four-year-olds, and kindergarteners involved using red cabbage juice as a color-changing indicator. Here’s how you can easily recreate this fun and educational experiment:

1. Make the Red Cabbage Indicator: Blend two red cabbage leaves with water until fully broken down. Strain the liquid to remove the cabbage bits, leaving you with a purple liquid. This will react to acids and bases, creating a color-changing effect.
2. Set Up the Experiment: Pour the cabbage juice into small condiment cups with lids. Punch small holes in the lids to fit the pipettes. For “water” cups, use larger plastic cups with lids. If you don’t have lids, cover the cups with plastic wrap and poke a small hole in the center for the pipette.
3. Secret Mixtures: Fill the demonstration cup you will use with plain water. For the children’s cups, add a surprise element:
   • Half of the cups will have ¼ to ½ teaspoon of baking soda mixed in the water.
   • The other half will have a teaspoon of vinegar mixed in the cup of water. 
   • Stir both mixtures well and keep it a secret from the kids!

Tell the class that today they will practice moving liquids from a small cup to a larger cup. The small cup has purple water and the larger cup has clear water. They will know if they are using the pipette correctly if the water in the large cup turns purple.

Demonstrate how to use the pipette and watch as the water turns light purple. Now, it’s time for the class experiment!

Set out tray with the small cups of cabbage water. Hand out the children’s “water” cups (without revealing what’s inside). Let them use their pipettes to add the cabbage juice to their cups.

As the cabbage juice mixed with their secret liquids, the water changed color—pink for vinegar, blue for baking soda. The kids were amazed by the surprise colors, and this kept them engaged much longer than if I’d used plain water. I took my cup of purple water around to the tables for the children to compare with their own. They thought it was hilarious that they could magically create different colors of water from the same purple juice.

For this activity, we didn’t get into acids and bases. I simply explained that some liquids change colors when mixed. We’ll save the chemistry lesson for another day. For now, this magical experiment helped them practice fine motor skills, make observations, and ask tons of questions about what other experiments we could try with our pipettes!

Additional Tips & Adaptations for Using Pipettes in Preschool

3-Year-Olds: You may want to start with the large droppers and move to the pipettes as children are able to use them successfully.

4-Year-Olds and Up: Once these students are comfortable using a pipette with control, you can take the lids off the cups.

Using pipettes in the preschool classroom opens the door to fun, hands-on learning that encourages both fine motor development and early scientific inquiry. Whether you’re doing a color-mixing activity, watering plants, or trying the red cabbage experiment, pipettes offer a world of discovery for young learners. Try one of these activities in your classroom and see how your students respond—you might be surprised by how much they love this simple tool!

My Favorite Resources for Pipettes in Preschool

Note: I don’t earn any commission from these links, I just want to share items that have worked well for me!

Pipettes: I have used these “disposable” pipettes multiple times. If they get split, they are inexpensive and easily replaced. If the tips get bent, you can trim off the end and get more use out of the pipette.

Learning Resource Jumbo Eyedroppers: I start with these for my 2’s classes.

2 oz clear condiment cups with lids: These are the cups I use for the cabbage juice. Use a hole punch to make a small hole in the lid. These small holes will only fit the pipettes, not the jumbo droppers.

8 oz clear cups with lids: I like these parfait cups for the experiments because the lids already have holes. The lids are fairly flimsy, though, so they will not hold up to repeated uses. When you are using the jumbo droppers, turn the lid of the cup upside down and tape it to the cup.