Concept maps were used in 21 schools of the MIUR Pilot Project "Le parole della scienza" with the participation of 6,000 Italian children to promote meaningful learning. The experience with concept maps described in this paper refers to scientific language teaching to 4-5 year old children in kindergarten. In 2003-2004 school year 56 children built concept maps in two different classes. Children produced a total of about 180 maps on their notebooks regarding manipulation experiences with the following objects: pumpkin, nest, papier-màché, vintage, cement, water, orange, sand.
