Push and Pull, Fast and Slow: Let's Learn About Force!
In this lesson, children will learn about force and motion and cause and effect while playing with boxes and weight.
Learning Goals:
This lesson will help children meet the following educational standards:
- Develop foundational skills in the use of science practices such as observing, asking questions, solving problems, and drawing conclusions
- Explore concepts and information about the physical, earth and life sciences
- Understand important connections and understandings in science and engineering
Learning Targets:
After this lesson, children should be more proficient at:
- Developing and using models to represent their ideas, observations and explanations
- Exploring the physical properties of objects
- Exploring the concepts of force and motion
- Using tools and technology to assist with scientific and engineering investigations
- Carrying out simple investigations
- Exploring the effect of force on objects in the early childhood environment
- Generating explanations and communicating ideas and/or conclusions about their investigations
Step 1: Gather materials.
- The book, Cece Loves Science: Push and Pull, by Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes
- Boxes and/or laundry baskets
- Objects of various weights to push and pull in the boxes and laundry baskets
Step 2: Introduce activity.
- Explain that the children are going to use boxes, laundry baskets and objects to learn about force and motion and cause and effect.
- Introduce the vocabulary words force, motion, cause, and effect.
- Read: Cece Loves Science: Push and Pull
- Discuss how applying force to something means giving it a push or a pull. The harder you push or pull, the more force is acted upon the object.
- Discuss what happens when we put different objects into the boxes or laundry baskets.
Step 3: Engage children in lesson activities.
- Bring in a couple of boxes or laundry baskets.
- Organize the children into groups and instruct them to experiment with pushing or pulling the boxes and laundry baskets when they are filled with objects of various weights (maybe even a child).
- Ask: "Which objects will require more force to push or pull? Why?"
- Encourage the children to make predictions and conduct experiments to test out their theories about which objects will require more force to push or pull.
- After the children have experimented, ask them to discuss cause and effect.
- Say: "When you put the heavier items in the boxes or laundry baskets, did you have to apply more or less force to move them?"
- Ask the children to draw conclusions based on their investigations.
Step 4: Engineering vocabulary
- Cause: Something that gives rise to an action or condition
- Effect: The result of a physical action
- Force: The push or pull on an object that causes it to change velocity
- Motion: Movement from one place to another
- Position: The place where you are (if you change your place, you are moving)
- Push: The force to move an object away
- Pull: The force to move an object closer
Suggested Books
- Forces: Physical Science for Kids by Andi Diehn
- Oscar and the Cricket: A Book About Moving and Rolling by Geoff Waring
- Push and Pull by Patricia J. Murphy
- Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy E. Shaw
- Motion: Push and Pull, Fast and Slow by Darlene R. Stille
- Push and Pull by Cody Crane
Music and Movement
Outdoor Connections
- Conduct this activity outdoors on slides, ramps and hills to extend the learning. Add science vocabulary such as balance, friction and speed to the lesson.
- A simple game of partner rowing is an excellent hands-on learning activity. Have two friends face each other in a sitting position. Teach them to reach out and hold hands in front of their bodies and begin to push and pull alternately so that their upper bodies rock back and forth like they are rowing a boat.
- The most basic push-and-pull activity is a classic game of Tug of War, which will help build the children's understanding of force.
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