Unit/Lesson Plan Title: Forces and Motion
Primary Subject
Integrated Subjects
Grade Level(s)
Length of Unit
Research Sources
Unit Summary
Key Vocabulary
Science
Math, writing, reading, speaking and listening
first
11 days with an additional day as a culminating activiy and post test
NCDPI Essential Standards Unpacking Document
In this Forces and Motion Unit, first graders will explore how forces affect the motion of
objects. Experiments are included in which students discover whether a force is a push or pull
and how to create a push or pull. Students will also discover how forces like wind, gravity, and
magnets can be used to move objects without touching them. Students will learn how to balance
objects according to weight. Finally, first graders will also “race” cars to experiment with changing
the speed of objects and changing the motion of an object. This unit includes a fun literacy
integration with The Three Little Pigs and building a house that the Big Bad Wolf can’t blow down!
motion, force, gravity, push, pull, magnet, direction, balance, unbalanced, pole, attract, repel,
unseen forces, zig zag, magnetic force, wind
NC Essential Standards For
Science
1.P.1 Understand how forces (pushes or pulls) affect the motion of an object.
1.P.1.1 Explain the importance of a push or pull to changing the motion of an object.
1.P.1.2 Explain how some forces (pushes and pulls) can be used to make things move without touching
them, such as magnets.
1.P.1.3 Predict the effect of a given force on the motion of an object, including balanced forces.
Commor Core Standards for
Mathematics
1.NBT.1 Count to 120, starting at any number less than 120. In this range, read and write numerals and
represent a number
of objects with a written numeral.
Understand place value.
1.G.2 Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and
quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular
cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes
from the composite shape. (Note: Students do not need to learn formal names such as “right
rectangular prism.”)
Common Core Standards for
ELA & Literacy
1.MD.1 Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a
third object.
1.MD.4 Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories; ask and answer
questions about the total number of data points, how many in each category, and how many
more or less are in one category than in another.
RL 1.3 Describe characters, setting, and major events in a story, using key details.
RL. 1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RI. 1.1 With prompting and support, read informational texts appropriate for grade 1.
A. 1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic,
and provide some sense of closure.
W.1.5 With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions
from peers, and add details to writing as needed.
W 1.8. With guidance and support from adults recall information from experiences or gather information
from provided sources to answer a question.
SPEAKING AND LISTENING:
SL. 1.1 Follow agreed upon rules for discussions
SL. 1.1. Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion
SL 1.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts,
and feelings.
L.1.5 Identify real-life connections between words and their use
KilmerAndrea
Saturday, September 7, 2013 2:36:38 PM ET
Essential Questions
How do you use forces and motion in your every day life?
Materials & Resources
Student lab notebook, unit created flipchart, unit vocabulary cards, suspicious
box, (pg. 2 of notebook), gloves, safety goggles, magnets, balance scale,
ramps, play cars, cones, hard boiled egg, various size balls, straws, balloons,
feathers, notebook paper, crash test man, stop watch, index cards, construction
paper, toothpicks, glue, cotton balls, clay (playdough), foil, wooden sticks,
unifex cubes
KilmerAndrea
Saturday, September 7, 2013 2:36:38 PM ET
Activities/Procedures
Essential Question: How do you use forces and motion in your every day life?
Each page of the lab notebook is in a flipchart that is included with this unit. There are also
additional links to videos, online books, and books to read included in the flipchart.
• Day 1: Students will be presented with suspicious boxes in the classroom and be asked for
help to move the boxes. The students will have to figure out how to move the boxes without
touching the boxes. Students will predict where the object came from and work as a team to
create a plan for moving the box. Students will test the materials used to move the box and
document what happened. Students will explain if they had to push or the pull the box and if
the weight affected the way you moved the box.
• Day 2 Motion and Movement
-Option 1- Ask students what it is called when something is moving? Introduce the word
motion or read the book Motion, Forces, and You (the motion section). Have students think about the
classroom and school and think of things that have motion. Students can draw a picture/write the
word of different objects around the school/classroom in their lab notebook.
-Option 2- Present students with the motion page of the book and ask them to think about
objects in the room/school that have motion or find objects in the classroom/school that have motion.
After students have collected objects or draw pictures/words to document objects in motion using their
lab notebook, discuss what the meaning of motion is and have students re-evaluate their objects to
determine if they are objects that have motion or not.
•
•
Discuss how objects move, make an anchor chart with different type of motion and movement
(straight, curved path, zig zag, circle). Students will then test different objects (toy car, cone clock,
egg, piece of paper) to determine how they move in the lab notebook.
• Day 3 Forces-Push and Pull: Optional books: Motion, Forces, and You or Forces Make
Things Move. Complete the force page of the lab notebook and discuss the mean of forces
and push and pull. Students will draw a picture and write a sentence for something you push
and another for something you pull at home.
• Day 4 Vrooom Vrooom- Race Car Ramps: Present students with materials to build a ramp.
Read the introduction in the lab notebook with your students and have your students work in
small groups to build a ramp and test their race car. Students must build a ramp and test it at
3 different heights (using cubes to measure the height) and time the car as it travels from
start to finish using a stop watch. Students will complete the page in their lab notebook and
share their findings with the class as a whole group. Discuss what students found when they
changed the height of the ramp (the speed changed).
• Day 5 It’s Crash Day!!!: Review what happened with the ramps yesterday as you changed
the height of the ramp. Present students with a new challenge to see how force affects the
motion. Students will be given a crash test man to add to their car using using clay (not
sticky enough to make him stick but enough to keep the man from fall off as he went down
the ramp) and a block to crash into at the end of the ramp. Students will change the height of
their ramp three times (using cubes to measure the height), just as we did the day before but
add the man with clay and have the car crash into the block at the bottom of the ramp. The
students will then use cubes to measure the distance the man traveled after he crashed. The
Students will test each height twice and measure the distance. The students will use the
Crash Day page of their lab notebook to record the results. After the students have tested
the ramps and crash tests they will answer the following questions “What was the farthest
distance our man traveled?” “Why?” and explain what happened. Students will then gather
as a whole group and share what happened with their crash tests and discuss what caused
the man to travel the furthest.
KilmerAndrea
Saturday, September 7, 2013 2:36:38 PM ET
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Accommodations for
Differentiated Instruction
KilmerAndrea
Day 6 Gravity- Begin with the lab notebook “Let’s Explore” and ask the students if there
are forces that move objects without touching them? Have students make a hypothesis
yes/no about forces that cause movement without contact. Then read the book Gravity
is a Mystery by Franklyn M. Branley. After reading discuss gravity and complete the page
in the lab notebook by discussing what gravity did to the racecars.
Day 7 Unseen Force (using a straw)- Students will be given marbles, dice, balloons,
pencils, feathers, books, toy cars, and balls and a straw to move each object. Students
will create force by blowing or sucking through the straw to cause movement. Students
will then circle in their lab notebook if the object moved when you pushed the object by
blowing through the straw or if it moved when you pulled the object by sucking through
the straw. Students will determine which object moved the farthest, was it pushed or
pulled, what force moved the object, and what type of force is wind?
Day 8 Unseen Forces: House Building- Use BookFlix (must have subscribtion)
Speakaboos or a hard copy of Three Little Pigs (included in flipchart)- Present the
students with their lab notebooks and read about the wolf coming to blow their house
down. Students will work in small groups to gather materials such as construction
paper, toothpicks, glue, cotton balls, clay (playdough), foil, wooden sticks to build a
house. Students will list the materials used to build their house and build a house that
they think will not fall down if the wolf came to blow it down.
Day 9 Test Day for Unseen Forces- Students will test their house with a fan or a hair
dryer to see if their house can withstand the force of the wind. Students will answer the
questions in their lab notebook recording what happened with their house. Students will
explain what they would change next time and draw the best design created in the class.
Day 10 Magnets- Present students with magnets. Ask them what the object is and how
they know. Explain that a magnet is an object that will attract or pull things made of iron.
Use the magnets page of the lab notebook to test objects in the classroom that are
magnetic (objects that are made of iron that are attracted to the magnet). Students will
draw a picture/write the word for objects in the classroom that are magnetic. Students
will then experiment with 2 magnets by turning them different directions and seeing what
happens when different ends of the magnets are together. As the students are
discovering the poles of the magnets and that one end pulls (attracts) the other magnet
and the other end pushes (repels) the magnets discuss what is happening and introduce
the words repel and attract as well as the north and south poles of the magnets by
completing the page in the lab notebook.
Day 11 Balance - Ask students what it means to balance. Show the students a scale/
balance and ask them how they know when the objects are balanced. Show the
students when the scale is balanced and when object is heavier that side of the balance
goes down and when one object is lighter that side goes up. Students will be given a
balance/scale as well as a variety of objects (glue stick, book, marker, shoe- their own,
pencil box, bottle of water, and scissors) and use counting bears or something similar to
count how many bears it took to make the balance equal (the same on both sides).
Day 12 Post Test
Vocabulary cards (visual learners)
Differentiated use of written expression within lab notebook
Inquiry based lessons using a variety of hands on materials and manipulatives
small groups
partner work
whole group
interactive flip chart
Saturday, September 7, 2013 2:36:38 PM ET
Cross Curricular
Integration
Created by
Email
writing, math, reading, speaking and listening, language
Supporting Documents
-Teacher Notes, Flipcharts, student lab notebook, additional resources page included as another
document
-Books: Newton and Me, by Lynne Mayer, Move-It: Motion, Forces, and You, by Adrienne Mason;
Gravity is a Mystery by Franklyn M. Branley; Forces Make Things Move by Kimberly Brubaker
Bradely
KilmerAndrea
carterma@rss.k12.nc.us
thompsoncs@rss.k12.nc.us
hegejb@rss.k12.nc.us
kilmeral@rss.k12.nc.us
Saturday, September 7, 2013 2:36:38 PM ET