Are you looking for ideas and inspiration to teach gravity in your classroom? Get ready to inspire your students with mind-blowing activities and experiments that will have them eagerly asking, “Why do things fall?” So, let’s take a leap and dive into the captivating realm of gravity right here on our home planet!
1. Hands-On Exploration
We know gravity as the invisible force that pulls objects towards the center of another object (in this case, Earth). My first step is learning about gravity to engage my students with some labs. The labs are easy to set up and the kids love them, which is a win-win!
All three labs in our Gravity Labs in a Snap kit are engaging, but the fan favorite for my kids is the “Hanging On” lab. Students tie classroom objects to rubberbands, and they connect the other end of the rubberband to a bar so that all of the objects are suspended in the air. Based on how much (or how little) the rubberband is pulled, students can generalize about gravity and mass.
2. Interactive Digital Tasks
Next, students read all about gravity in our Gravity Digital Inquiry resource. Students read a passage and watch two videos, and then they use the interactive features of Google Slides to answer the questions about gravity. Students learn about gravity on Earth as well as gravity in Space with this tool. I love this resource because it’s differentiated for my learners! I have the option for my students to synthesize their learning on their own, or with guided fill-in-the-blanks for my readers and writers who need scaffolding.
3. Put on a Show
To help my students begin to explain how gravity works, I ask them to be creative and show us how gravity works. Student options are endless for this activity. They can write a song, paint a picture, create an interpretive dance… really anything they can think of that will help them explain the concept of gravity to others! (I do have some kiddos who prefer to write about it, and that’s great too!)
4. Reading & Responding
At this point in our unit, we begin to elaborate on how gravity works in Space. Students read a passage from the Gravity in Space Science Article. After reading a 2-page nonfiction article, students answer multiple choice, multi-select, and short answer questions that are great practice for state testing. This activity can be done whole group, small group, or individually, so you have a lot of flexibility in how your students complete this activity.
5. Using the 5E Model
One of my favorite toys in Toy Story is the parachuting soldier- I used to love them as a kid and I was so excited to see them in the movie! To help my students get as excited as I was, we completed a phenomena-based activity to find out How a Parachute Impacts the Effect of Gravity on Earth.
Students work through engaging activities and labs that center around our parachute phenomenon, including labs where we drop different kinds of paper and the creation of gravity models. In the grand finale of this series of lessons, students create their own parachute using tissue paper, coffee filters, or any other material they think might work.
I use a ladder and drop the students’ creations from the top. The kids are having so much fun with this learning activity that they don’t even realize this is synthesizing their learning over the past couple of weeks.
So there you have it, gravity gurus! I hope these fun and interactive ideas help your 5th-grade students grasp the concept of gravity on Earth and how it influences the wonders of space.
-Mikey, 5th Grade Teacher
Top Teaching Tools
If you’re inspired by all of this and want to use these ideas in your classroom, we’ve got them all ready for you!! Click the pictures below to be taken directly to these resources on TPT.
-Mikey, 5th Grade Teacher and Science Penguin Blogger
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