Forces lesson for grade 5

Welcome! I'm so excited to explore the world of forces with you. Before we dive into all the cool ways things push, pull, and move, I want to make sure this lesson is a perfect match for what you already know.

To make this lesson just right, have you already covered any of this in class, or is this a brand new topic for you?

Brand new

That's wonderful to hear! Starting fresh is the absolute best because we get to build the foundation together from the ground up.

Your path

Gravity and Friction

Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

What is a Force?

Think about how you start your day. When you open a heavy door, you are exerting a push. When you pull open a desk drawer to grab a pencil, you are exerting a pull. In science, we have a simple, elegant word for these actions: a is simply a push or a pull acting upon an object. Forces are happening all around us, even when we don't realize it. Every single time something starts moving, stops moving, or changes how it is moving, a force is responsible.

A static split-screen comparison of the forces of pushing and pulling.

I've started generating an interactive diagram to help you visualize this. You will see how simple actions like moving a box or pulling a wagon are perfect examples of these two fundamental types of force.

Now that we know forces are just pushes and pulls, let's explore what actually happens when we apply them to things around us.

Continue: how forces affect motion

You got it! Let's jump right into how forces change how things move. Think about when you're riding a skateboard or a bicycle. If you're coasting along slowly and a friend gives you a big push from behind, you'll immediately .

That push is a force that makes you go faster. But what if you need to stop? You drag your foot on the ground or squeeze the brakes. That action creates a rubbing force that works against your motion, causing you to slow down. So, forces are the magic ingredient needed to change an object's speed — whether that means launching a rocket faster into space or bringing a soccer ball to a complete stop.

A soccer ball experiences different external forces: a foot pushes the ball to speed it up, and a hand blocks the ball to slow it down.

I've started setting up an interactive animation above so you can see exactly how applying a force in the same direction makes something speed up, while applying a force against it slows it down.

Ready to see how forces can also change the path an object is taking?