5 Ideas for Force & Motion

5 Ideas for Force and Motion

Teaching elementary students about force and motion is super important and can be really fun. Force is just a fancy way of saying “push” or “pull”, and it’s what makes things move or change direction. Motion is simply the movement of an object from one place to another.

Together, force and motion help us understand how things move and interact with each other and the world around them. So if you’re looking to teach your kids about force and motion, get ready for some fun activities that will help them understand the physical world!

1. 🏐 Make a Marble Coaster

The left side includes a photo from a track student teams designed for a marble.  After completing the right side to learn the vocabulary for forces, students go back to the photo on the left side and identify how the vocabulary fits with the activity.
Force and Motion Science Notebook Photos: hands-on vocabulary

2. 🎈 Build a Balloon Rocket

Have you ever made a balloon rocket? It’s a lot of fun AND it can be used as a stimulus for a discussion on position, motion, and thrust. The materials are simple:

Thin string (8-10 feet)

Balloon Straw (paper straws work great)

Tape

See the labs on TpT : Motion Labs in a Snap

Balloon Rocket

3. 🛼 Investigate the Effects of Friction

▶️ Last year, when instruction was largely digital, I made some videos for energy and force. You can easily recreate this investigation for your in-person students or send virtual students to the video.

YouTube channel : The Science Penguin

4. 📓 Create your Interactive Notebook

Physics is tough so it’s the All in One Notebook to the rescue!

You’ll find templates for different types of forces, characteristics of forces, vocabulary, motion, and simple machines, all with example photos of course!

See it on TpT : All in One Science Notebook

Force and Motion Notebook Templates
Force and Motion Notebook Templates

5. ⚽️ Set up a Soccer Relay

You’ll be some kids’ favorite teacher when you incorporate sports into your study of force and motion.

Plus, it’s super relevant to kids’ experiences!

Here is the relay game I use as the introduction to my Sports & Force Unit.

Relay Directions
Take students outside or to a large open indoor space.
 
Use cones or lines to set up paths to follow for 4 different teams in a relay.
 
The first person on each team drops the ball to the ground and dribbles the ball with their feet to the cone/line.
 
On the way back to the original cone/line, they throw the ball.
(They may have to pick the ball up and throw it more than once.) The ball must be thrown to the next team member.
 
Then the next person goes. When all teams have completed the relay, have a class discussion.
 
Relay Discussion
1. What forces resulted in (or caused) motion? (dropping the ball/gravity, kicking the ball, throwing the ball)

2. What forces stopped or slowed motion? (catching the ball, friction from the surface slowing it down, the ground when the ball was dropped)

Notebook Reflection

Make a T-Chart. On one side, write examples of how force caused motion in today’s activity. On the other, provide examples of how force stopped motion.

Then we follow up the activity with Sports Stations from the Sports & Force Unit.

Force & Motion Resources

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6 thoughts on “5 Ideas for Force & Motion”

  1. I’m interested in the Forces Vocabulary Fold-Up that you wrote is from the “All in One Science Notebook”. I have already purchased several of the items listed in this bundle, so I don’t want to purchase the entire bundle. Can you tell me specifically which individual product this particular fold up is in? Thanks so much!

    Reply
  2. I love what you have done in your books on this post. Is there somewhere where i can purchase just the resources you have used in this post pretty please?

    Reply
  3. Hi

    I purchased your 5th grade science bundle – it’s absolutely amazing!!

    I’m just wondering where I can find Interactive notebook on forced and motion for grades 5/6?

    Please reply asap

    Thanks

    Miriam

    Reply
  4. Ari, thank you for this post! I started using your materials when I taught 6th grade science a few years ago. Now I teach 10th grade physical science and your ideas and materials are STILL helpful to me. Love the soccer relay idea! Thank you so much for all your help!!

    Reply

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