Open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science.

Pushes & Pulls

About this Unit

In this unit, students are introduced to pushes and pulls and how those affect the motion of objects. Students observe and investigate the effects of what happens when the strength or direction of those pushes and pulls are changed.

• K-2-ETS1-1
• K-2-ETS1-2
• K-2-ETS1-3
• K-PS2-1
• K-PS2-2

Lesson 1: Pushes & Pulls

In this lesson, students discover that there are pushes and pulls involved in any kind of work, including the work done by machines. In the activity, Be a Digging Machine, students pretend to use shovels and excavators to dig a hole for a swimming pool.

No supplies needed for this lesson!

But be sure to check the prep instructions below.

Read-Along Lesson 2: Pushes, Pulls, & “Work Words”

In this Read-Along lesson, Vivian watches a house being built and wonders why the builders need so many big machines. The lesson includes a short exercise where students act out the “work words” of their favorite machine. You can extend the lesson with the optional activity, Forces at Work, where students watch videos of construction equipment and practice using work words to describe what the machines are doing.

No supplies needed for this lesson!

Lesson 3: Strength of Pushes & Pulls

In this lesson, students explore the strength of pushes and pulls in order to solve a tricky problem. In the activity, Don't Crush That House, students investigate how to adjust a model wrecking ball's force so they can knock down a wall of cups. The challenge: they can't knock down the paper houses right behind the cups!

Read-Along Lesson 4: Speed & Direction of Force

In this Read-Along lesson, Daniel worries he won’t do well at a friend’s Bumper Bowling party…until he figures out an unexpected way to win. The lesson includes a short exercise where students act out bowling. If you want to extend the lesson, you can try this optional activity, Human Bumper Bowling, where students make a model bumper bowling alley and work together to knock down pins.

Lesson 5: Direction of Motion & Engineering

In this lesson, students investigate how pushes can change the speed and direction of falling objects. In the activity, Boulder Bounce, students play a game where they design a solution that protects a model town called Tiny Town from a bouncing-ball “boulder.”

Read-Along Lesson 6: Forces & Engineering

In this Read-Along lesson, twins Mimi and Lulu try different ways to catch a mysterious nighttime visitor…until they hit on just the right solution. The lesson includes a short exercise where students imagine how to design a good monster trap, and then pretend to be sneaky monsters. You can extend the lesson with the optional activity, Be an Inventor, where students draw their own inventions for machines that do chores.