Scientific Inquiry

Looking closely at a leaf, describing how it feels, and comparing it with another—scientific inquiry does not always need a laboratory. Children use their senses and tools to find details, preserve information in language or pictures, and classify and compare what they observe, gradually making their understanding clearer.

3–4 years: describing and preserving observations. Sensory discoveries, simple classification, science vocabulary, and drawings help children share a phenomenon they have noticed.
4–5 years: observing more closely and comparing more systematically. Function, sound, material, and other less immediately visible properties become clues, while tools help children discover and compare more information.

Exploration and Discovery before age 3 provides a foundation for this pathway. The skills here begin after age 3 and focus on how children observe and organize information—not teaching all science content early.

Below are selected skills to notice at specific ages. Age is a developmental reference point; understand each skill alongside what you see in everyday life.

3½ years (42 months)

Uses the five senses to observe objects, materials, organisms, and events.

What to notice: Does your child intentionally use an appropriate sense to learn about an object and attend to the discovery? All five senses do not need to be used every time, and unfamiliar or unsafe materials must never be tasted for observation.

How to support it: Different senses provide different information, and observation needs enough time to perceive it. Demonstrate safe, appropriate ways to observe, follow the detail that catches your child's attention, and then invite another viewpoint.

Keep in mind: Do not rush to explain the answer or measure completion by number of senses used; what matters is that the child genuinely obtained new information.

Sorts objects into groups based on simple attributes, such as color.

What to notice: Can your child place objects into groups according to one clear observed property? Focus on observing before classifying and keeping a consistent basis, not merely placing objects where an adult instructs.

How to support it: Classification organizes similarities and differences found through scientific observation. Make one readily observable feature explicit, demonstrate comparison, and let your child sort and state or indicate the basis.

Keep in mind: Allow checking during the process, avoid requiring independent use of several criteria too soon, and remember that objects with many properties may allow more than one reasonable classification.

4 years (48 months)

With adult support, represents observable phenomena, such as draws a picture.

What to notice: Does your child's drawing or mark preserve a feature they actually observed? This use of representation differs from free imaginative drawing, but it does not require realism.

How to support it: Representation lets an observation remain available for later review and communication. Help your child look again at details, demonstrate how a drawing or mark can stand for what was seen, and assist communication when needed.

Keep in mind: Do not add features the child did not observe or let drawing-skill expectations overshadow the purpose of recording information.

Begins to use scientific vocabulary words with modeling and support from an adult.

What to notice: Does your child use a new word for the phenomenon currently being observed and gradually connect it with actual meaning? Focus on vocabulary supporting understanding and discussion rather than repetition of a technical label.

How to support it: Science vocabulary can make an indistinct impression more precise, but it needs a basis in concrete experience. Model a small amount of accurate, understandable language during observation, respond when your child uses it, and add meaning as needed.

Keep in mind: Avoid presenting many terms at once or treating correct repetition as full understanding; return to what the child saw and did to check the connection.

4½ years (54 months)

Describes observable phenomena using adjectives and labels, such as lemons taste sour and play dough feels sticky.

What to notice: Does your child's description include a property they actually sensed, such as sour or sticky, rather than only “fun” or “I like it”? Focus on accurately communicating an observation, not elaborate wording.

How to support it: Specific descriptions allow observations to be shared and compared. Listen to your child's language first, model a word that more closely fits the sensation, and invite checking together.

Keep in mind: Keep vocabulary connected with actual experience instead of drilling adjectives, and never arrange unsafe tasting or contact simply to obtain a particular sensory description.

With increasing independence, sorts objects into groups based on more complex attributes, such as appearance, weight, function, ability, odor, sound, or texture.

What to notice: Can your child use touching, listening, function, or another less obvious property to discover a similarity and classify objects? The change is a richer basis for sorting, not merely more categories.

How to support it: Some properties require active handling to discover, so classification depends on sufficiently close observation. Offer safe comparisons, help your child state which basis they are using, and then let them organize objects consistently.

Keep in mind: Respect different reasonable groupings, do not make the adult's preselected categories the only answer, and do not require every category to be visible at a glance.

5 years (60 months)

Uses observational tools to extend the five senses, such as a magnifying glass, microscope, binoculars, or stethoscope.

What to notice: After using a tool, does your child notice information that was previously hard to see or hear? Focus on the tool extending observation, not knowing the instrument's name or merely holding it.

How to support it: A tool is useful because it helps the senses obtain more information. Demonstrate safe use, compare what can be perceived before and after, and let your child continue observing around their interest.

Keep in mind: A simple tool with an understandable purpose is enough; expensive equipment does not make an activity more scientific, and safety boundaries for lenses, sound, and other tools still apply.

Uses measurement tools (such as a ruler, balance scale, eye dropper, unit blocks, thermometer, or measuring cup) to assess the properties of and compare observable phenomena.

What to notice: Can your child use information from a tool to compare objects rather than only read a scale? Focus on how the tool supports a judgment of similarities or differences; the meaning of equal units can also be explored in Measurement.

How to support it: Measurement tools can make a subtle difference comparable. Clarify what is being compared, demonstrate a suitable tool and method, and let your child operate it, examine the information, and explain the result.

Keep in mind: Do not treat a reading as the conclusion by itself or compare results obtained under incompatible conditions; the information should actually answer the comparison question.

Sources and notes

Better Parenting’s child-development framework draws in part on the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five. For this pathway, you can also review Head Start’s Scientific Inquiry Effective Practice Guide. Official framework sources inform domain, sub-domain, goal, and developmental-progression terminology where applicable. Better Parenting independently organizes the parent-facing What to notice and How to support it explanations and connects them with its own activity library.

The ELOF itself is not a curriculum, assessment, or checklist. Better Parenting’s Skill Assessment and Growth Path are Better Parenting product features, not Head Start assessment tools.

Skill wording and age references on this page come from the Better Parenting child-development framework. A child may show different behaviors in different situations, so understand these examples alongside everyday experience rather than treating one activity as a judgment of an entire sub-domain.

This page helps you understand what you can observe and how you can offer support. To explore your child's current position in this sub-domain, open the corresponding Growth Path in the Better Parenting app and use the Skill Assessment.

Better Parenting Content Team | Updated September 2, 2026