Understand what happens when you push or pull something

Starter

Explain what push and pull mean. Encourage the children to think of examples of pushes and pulls.

Main Teaching

In this activity, the children will learn about Newton's second law of motion. They will learn that the force required to move the toy car is proportional to the weight of the toy car. Engineers use this relationship to determine how much force they need to move an aeroplane. Have some examples of pushes and pulls needed on toys to show the children real examples.

Key Questions:

• Do the children know the difference between the terms push and pull? 
• Can the children provide examples of objects that are pulled? 
• Can the children provide examples of objects that are pushed?
• What word describes a caravan being towed? 
• What word is used to describe someone moving a shopping trolley forward?
• What word means to move something away from you?
• What word means to move something towards you?

Mission Assignment

1. The children can cut out the pictures from the handout and sort them into a pile that represents push and a pile that represents pull.
2. There are six images for each pile.
3. The answers are shown at the end of the mission assignment video.
4. The children should then look around the room for objects that they push and/or pull.

This can be done either in a large group or individually. Can any of these push/pull activities be tried in your classroom or outside? Think about how we can be safe when showing our push and pull knowledge. Discuss how we can be safe as we move around our classroom or garden. How can we care for one another as we move? As the children explore their environment, challenge them to think if their action is a push or a pull - take some photos as they explore to show in the plenary later.

Challenge Task: Use the extra handout to further challenge the children; can they draw or write about the items they explored when pushing and pulling?