Forces, Motion, & Gravity

“We build too many walls, and not enough bridges”

Isaac Newton

Are you looking for a unit on Forces and Motion for your K-4th graders? You have come to the right place! In this unit, we incorporate both science and history into our unit. We study the findings of Sir Isaac Newton – force, motion, and gravity – and did some great experiments along the way! This unit can be accomplished in just one week, or spread out into two. First up, here are my recommendations on books and videos.

Books & Video

There are a ton of books and videos on forces and motion, and it can be overwhelming as to where to start!! My number one book recommendation for learning about Isaac Newtown is to read this book:

• “Who was Isaac Newton?” – by Janet B. Pascal

If your child is older, you can assign this biography to them. It is a fairly easy read for a child around 9 or 10. If they are on the younger side, you can read it to them! This year, with my kids in 2nd and 4th, I assigned them a few chapters and read the other chapters to them.

Here are some other books we enjoy about forces and motion:

• Science View “Forces and Motion” – This book was so in depth and informative about many different types of forces, including gravity. It also has a section at the end about simple machines (which we skipped this time). I could not find a read aloud for this book, but please check the library or click the link to purchase from amazon!
• “Boom Science: Forces” – this graphic novel is great for a 2nd/3rd grader to read on their own. No YouTube but here is the amazon link.
• “Move it! Motion, Forces,and You” – Adrienne Mason – this book covers it all in a child friendly form! Catch the read aloud by clicking the title.
• “What makes a magnet?” – Franklyn Branley – This book is all about magnets. I could not find a read aloud online, but you can purchase the book from amazon here.
• “The Magnetic Dog” – Bruce Whatley – story about a dog who attracts food. Just a silly story, if you click the title it will take you to the read aloud.
• “Newton and Me” -Lynne Mayer – a book about forces and motion as told by a little boy who experiments along with his dog Newton.

Videos

In addition, it’s fun to add in some short videos to your lessons! The first few are about the life of Newton and his law of gravity. The last 3 are laws of motion videos you can watch on a separate day. All of these videos are for younger kids, probably 4th grade and under. They do not go into Newton’s mathematical formulas.

• “Sir Isaac Newton” – this one has monsters telling the story of how Newton discovered gravity
• “Dr. Binoc- Gravity” – Dr. Binoc is another cartoon that is a favorite among my kids
• “The Quick Story of Isaac Newton” – This was a biographical cartoon about his life with a guy talking in a silly voice!
• “Dr. Binoc – Newton’s 1st Law of Motion” – another Dr. Binoc episode!
• “Newton’s 2nd law of motion” – short 4 min video about the 2nd law
• “Newton’s 3rd law of motion” – this video is similar to the last one, another cartoon about the laws.

Forces and Experiments

We structured this unit, by first studying Sir Isaac Newton, and his law of gravity. We practiced making marble runs out of recycled materials- paper towel tubes are the best for this. See my blog post on marbles for more details on the marble runs. This was a way to demonstrate gravity in a fun way. If your child is older, you can incorporate more about velocity during this experiment, for example timing how fast the marble can go down the run. It is easy to take a marble run and start a discussion about how to make the marbles run faster.

There are also tons of great science lessons about motion on Mystery science (which we love). Many of their lessons are offered free of charge. This year we used a 4th grade lesson, involving making your own marble run that also demonstrated a chain reaction. The marble run activity took about 30 min and was engaging for the kids.

After discussing gravity, we next moved into types of forces later in the week. It was an easy transition to move into the laws of motion, and talk about some of the different types of forces.

Magnetic Force

There are SO many activities to do with magnets, it was hard to choose!! We first hypothesized about which items around the house would be attracted to a magnet and which were not. I have a sheet about this in my forces packet, but it would be easy to just make a list at home of some metal objects that you have, and then let your kids test them!

We used a ring magnet to attract items. My kids had a ton of fun with just a box of paper clips. They liked to see how many they could attach in a row. And we learned that the magnet will turn a paper clip into a magnet, so you can stack quite a few!

Mystery science also has a lesson about how to use a magnet to open a door. I would recommend this for a student 8 years or older. In this activity, students can create a magnetic door in a few different ways. My daughter then took the experiment one step further and she made a door in a cardboard box! So fun!

Drag, Spring, and Electrical Force

During this unit, we discussed briefly drag force, spring force, electrical force, and tension force. In my full unit on all the different types of forces for 2nd to 4th graders, I have a sheet and small activity for each one.

At home, we attempted to make a parachute to demonstrate drag force. You can give your kids some supplies – such as paper clips, tissue paper, and string. Ask them to design a way to the paperclip to float down from the air! Explain that the reason the “parachute” moves so slowly is because of drag force. Air comes up to catch inside the parachute, causing it to “drag” on the way down.

For spring force, we took out our bow and arrow and played in the backyard! My 8 year old also made her own bow and arrow out of sticks and rubber bands that she cut and tied together. You can demonstrate spring force by just using a rubber band! When you stretch the band, it creates potential energy, and when it is released, the force creates a spring!

If you are willing to spend a little money, electric force would be a great one to purchase a kit for! We bought this cute little brush robot from Michael’s or Amazon for $12 and my girls put it together. They were able to see how the circuit works and set it up themselves. They connected the wire motors to the battery housing, put together all the pieces, and in less than an hour we had our own little robot!

Wrap Up

That’s a wrap of our forces unit! If you’d like to check out my packet for Kindergarten and 1st grade on force you can click here, or for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, click here! We had a great time with these projects and are looking forward into our next topic of studying renewable energy! If you missed the marble run experiment, you can find it here!