Wrapping up Pushes and Pulls in Science

In science today, the kids had so much fun being scientists and wrapping up our last lesson with pushes and pulls. I had them work in a small group today where I asked them to create something that would help a ball to hit a plastic cup that was far away from it. When they start with a single push to the ball, the ball can change direction and will miss the cup. It is hard to push the ball hard enough on the carpet so it goes in the exact direction you want it so it can knock over the cup. It most instances, the ball will change direction when pushed and be hard to hit a target. Therefore, we talked about what they can build so their ball goes in the right direction when given a harder push and will be successful in knocking over the cup every time. They thought of building a pathway with books, blocks, etc. so that the ball had an edge to guide it down a pathway right toward the cup and will end with the cup knocking over. They all did such a great job problem solving and figuring out a successful solution together as a group. When they found something that worked, I asked them to draw it in their science journals. I asked them to make sure they did their best to draw what they designed so it looked close enough to what they built and to color it with realistic colors. Then we met as a class and talked about what they made and things that were successful and some that weren't. To end our unit, I read them a book called Pushes and Pulls to pull everything we learned all together in one book. They had so much fun being scientists today!