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One way to engage students in teaching about difficult science concepts like Force and Motion is to help them relate the new concepts to the world around them. Books are an engaging way to enhance lessons and drive home concepts. Here is an excellent Force and Motion booklist that focuses on concepts such as push, pull, inertia, gravity, friction, wind power, and speed.

Most of these Force and Motion picture books are geared toward students in Kindergarten through Third grade. They are fun, easy for students to read on their own or for you to read aloud to them. Vibrant, colorful illustrations bring another layer of teaching that students will love.

This list makes an excellent accompaniment to the Third Grade Science Stations and 5E Lesson Plans on Force and Motion, which can be purchased separately or as part of a Third Grade Science Bundle. The focus of the Force and Motion Science Stations is on NGSS 3-PS2.A and includes the same concepts found in the booklist such as push, pull, inertia, gravity, friction, wind power, and speed.
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One Saturday morning, a dog named Newton wakes his boy for a day filled with fun. Along the way, they discover the wonderful world of force and motion.

Through fun, easy to read rhyme, students learn the laws of force and motion. Can the ball move on its own? How does grass affect the ball's motion? What role does gravity play in a truck's speed?

Included in the book are extra activities For Creative Minds. The website for the book also includes teaching activities and interactive quizzes.
And Everyone Shouted, "Pull!" ~ Claire Llewellyn
Grade: Pre-K-3
Farmer and the animals need to get to the market, but they run into a few obstacles along the way.

A great book for students to learn about the different forces of physics needed for movement. Will the animals need to push or pull to get up the hill or out of the mud?

The end of the book has a further explanation about forces, a "useful words" glossary, and "fun facts".

Need a little help teaching your students about movement? Oscar is the cat you need.

Students will love learning with Oscar through various activities that will show them different types of forces needed for movement. Bonus: The back of the book contains supplemental activities for more science fun!

Force is at work all around us, all the time. A student pushes a friend on a swing. Another student pulls on a rubber band to launch a water balloon. But, do we really know what force is?

This is an engaging book that teaches students the physical laws of force and motion and how they impact both.

The book contains a glossary, a "ball-toss" game, and a list of additional books and resources to explore more.

A Science book list is not complete without The Magic School Bus. Every student loves the hilarious adventures of Ms. Frizzle and her students.

In this book, students will learn about force and friction in an original and exciting story. Plus, there are lots of hands-on activities for students to apply what they've learned and discover more.

What is motion? Changing places from where I am to where I want to be? Do I move in straight lines or curved lines? Up or down? Forward or backward? How does speed affect my motion?

A fun exploration of forces and motion to include speed, inertia, direction, and gravity. More focused on speed and friction than on pushing and pulling.

Lots of great experiments, fun facts, and more resources to bring students' learning experience to the fullest.

Students will love this thrilling minute-by-minute recreation of a roller coaster ride! They will explore every climb and dive with the pony-tailed girl in the front car.

This thrilling ride will teach students about force, motion, and gravity in a way they won't soon forget!

This makes a great read-aloud and allows teachers to ask students questions about how roller-coasters work and what forces are used during each part of the ride.

A detailed explanation of forces and motion through fun, vibrant pictures, and text.

Friction, speed, gravity, inertia. Students learn how each of these play parts in the bigger picture of force and motion.

Bonus activities to explore friction and more included.

Need a book that explores force and motion on a deeper, advanced level?

In Eyewitness, students will gain a deeper understanding of force and motion as they explore ancient and modern examples of how they are applied.

This book has been called "a museum between the covers of a book." Students will love the pictures and the lessons on force and motion.

Loaded with hands-on activities and facts that will engage your students!

Students will love the experiments for their fun, teachers love them for how easy it is to set them up!

Simple explanations, colorful pictures, and an abundance of activities.

William Kamkwamba knows desperate situations. He also knows how to overcome them.

A great read-aloud story that will teach students about the force of wind power and how it relates to motion and electricity.

William Kamkwamba's story will inspire students with a real-life example of overcoming obstacles.

Does size and strength impact force? If a mouse plays tug-of-war against a bear, who will win?

In this richly illustrated book, students learn about balance in force and motion. Mouse and her friends discover, through mathematics and problem-solving, how to create two equally balanced teams to play tug-of-war. Will it be meat-eaters vs. plant-eaters? Or is there a better way to balance the teams?

At the end of the book, students will learn the four definitions of 'equal' defined by the worlds of math, art, science, and team sports.

A List of all 12 Force and Motion Picture Books in One Place

Newton and Me ~ Lynne Mayer, Grades K-3

And Everyone Shouted, "Pull!" ~ Claire Llewellyn, Grade: Pre-K-3

Oscar and the Cricket ~ Jeff Waring Grade: Pre-K - 3

Give It a Push! Give it a Pull! ~ Jennifer Boothroyd, Grade: 1-4

The Magic School Bus Plays Ball ~ Joanna Cole, Grade: 1 - 3

Motion: Push and Pull, Fast and Slow ~ Darlene Stille, Grade: K - 4

Roller Coaster ~ Marla Frazee, Grade: Preschool - 3

Forces Make Things Move ~ Kimberly Bradley, Grade: K - 4

Eyewitness: Force and Motion, Level: 3 - 7

Move It!: Motion, Forces and You, Grade: K - 3

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind ~ William Kamkwamba, Grade: 1 - 3

Equal Shmequal ~ Virginia Kroll, Grades PreK-3

We hope you enjoy reading these books and exploring Force and Motion with your students!

The Third Grade Science Stations and 5E Lesson Plans on Force and Motion have taken the guesswork out of how to plan what to teach for science. The focus of the Force and Motion Science Stations is on NGSS 3-PS2.A and includes the same concepts found in the booklist such as push, pull, inertia, gravity, friction, wind power, and speed.

You can see more in-depth information about the Third Grade Science Stations in this blog post. More information about the 5E Science Stations as well as examples of the Balanced and Unbalanced Forces Unit are also available.

More Science Book Lists

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12 Force and Motion Picture Books to Engage Young Learners

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One way to engage students in teaching about difficult science concepts like Force and Motion is to help them relate the new concepts to the world around them. Books are an engaging way to enhance lessons and drive home concepts. Here is an excellent Force and Motion booklist that focuses on concepts such as push, ...

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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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Love SheepInAJeep and Pulling Weeds ideas

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Fury 325 POV Worlds Tallest Giga Roller Coaster Carowinds 2015

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My students and I enjoy impromptu "messy play days" during preschool. When the weather is gorgeous, it's such fun to spend an entire day outside playing and learning. We've played in the mud, drawn and written with chalk, gotten the goop out, made fairy houses, and splashed around with sand and water. The favorite activity by far, though, is often this super simple preschool art project.

Preschool Art + Science = Splat Painting!

We were inspired by Fantastic Fun and Learning's Paint with Pom Poms idea, so we decided to do that on a large scale. The fun we had with that art project is the inspiration behind our splat-filled messy day art.

Setting up

The set up was pretty easy for this project. I grabbed a long length of brown butcher paper and set it in the grass. The brown paper was a bit thicker than the other butcher paper we had on hand, so I knew it would stand up to some messy art fun. I used tin cans to hold down the edges of the paper. A stepladder was brought out and set up as well.

For the paint, I used liquid watercolors donated to my school by Discount School Supply. Since I know how paint-happy my students are sometimes, I diluted the watercolors with water. The paints are very vibrant in color, but I wanted them to last longer during this activity. Once everything else was set up, I placed pompoms on the butcher paper.

Bring on the kids!

I then invited the children to come explore. We had started talking about splat painting and gravity the other day, so the kids already had some background knowledge. Some of the children immediately put the pompoms in the watercolors and ran to climb up the stepladder. After they dropped the painted pompoms onto the paper, I asked them to tell me what happened. "It splatted!" "It made a crazy shape!"

After a few tries on the ladder, I had some of the kiddos stay in the grass and drop the pompoms. When asked what they observed, most of them pointed out that those splats weren't as big. When I wondered why, they said the pompoms had farther to fall when they were on the stepladder. According to one of the girls, "that pompom fell from higher, so it made a bigger splat!"

Experimenting with art

This led into a variety of experimentation with the painted pompoms. The kids dropped the pompoms from child-height level, from the top of the stepladder, from down close to the paper, and they even brought me into play ("since you're taller, Miss Mary Catherine!"). They also tried swinging the pompoms side to side, and some pom poms were thrown at the paper too.

I loved watching them try out new techniques, and I especially loved hearing them discuss why and how the different splats were created. Combining scientific exploration with art! This led into a great conversation about what gravity is and how it works. I am always amazed how how children's brains work!

We pinned our splat-painted masterpiece to the playground fence to dry. It's now hanging in a place of honor in the school hallway, right above where the children's backpacks are. After our messy play day, I had the children sign in by answering a question, "What was your favorite part of our messy day?" Can you guess which activity won that spot? 🙂

Do you have any special preschool art projects that your students/children just loved? Feel free to share them in the comments below.

More Preschool Art Activities

If you and the kids loved this, be sure to check out more art ideas!
Originally published on April 16, 2014

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Drop! Splat! Playful Preschool Art with Watercolors

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My students and I enjoy impromptu "messy play days" during preschool. When the weather is gorgeous, it's such fun to spend an entire day outside playing and learning. We've played in the mud, drawn and written with chalk, gotten the goop out, made fairy houses, and splashed around with sand and water.

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not as noisy as cars...

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Create a simple Easter science and physics experiment with plastic Easter egg races using all those plastic eggs you have been collecting! Egg races are perfect for playful learning and this egg race experiment is quick set up too! Holiday themed science and STEM activities are the way to go with young scientists!

PLASTIC EASTER EGG RACES FOR EXPLORING PHYSICS

You will find all our best Easter science activities right here!

MY LATEST VIDEOS

PLASTIC EASTER EGG RACES SET UP

SUPPLIES

Plastic Eggs {variety of sizes is best!}

Plastic Rain Gutters {or make your own ramps out of cardboard with bent sides to keep eggs from rolling off}

Stopwatch {fun but optional and perfect for the older kids who need to extend the activity a bit}

I thought it would be very fun to continue our science exploration with plastic egg by hosting Easter egg races, but what to race them on?

We bought a 10′ plastic rain gutter for $5 at Home Depot. (I thought of at least 5 more ways to use it later on!) My husband sawed it in half for me, and I sanded the edges.

Our race cars were two different sized plastic eggs, but you can add as many sizes as you like. Older kids will be able to extend the learning with this activity by comparing multiple size eggs.

Let the egg race experiments begin!

Make sure to get the discussion going with simple questions. Introduce a "What do you think will happen if...?" type of question.

Help your kids make predictions as to what will happen with different size eggs and different angles of ramps.

Older kids may also find learning about Newton's 3 Laws to be interesting, and they can easily apply them to the eggs on the ramp.
NEWTON'S 3 LAWS
An object at rest stays in rest. The egg is not going to move unless a force is applied to it! So you need to pick it up and provide a way for the egg to accelerate! For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.

Our set up would be a little better to show this if we had a platform for the egg to sit on at the top of the ramp. However, an object will stay in motion if it is in motion until it encounters an unbalanced force. The unbalanced force here is the shift from ramp to floor.

Easter Egg Races Experiment & Observations

Egg races make an excellent experiment to make predictions! We discussed the angles of the ramp and how they influenced the speed of the egg. Higher ramp/angle the faster the egg went, the lower the ramp angle, the slower the egg went.

We also discussed a favorite concept called gravity and how it helped to pull the eggs down but as the angle of the ramp decreased it slowed gravity down! The large egg was generally faster than the small egg except when the ramp was lower!

This simple egg race activity provided so many lessons to try out!

Each ramp angle presented a new discovery and a chance to guess what might happen!

The ramps with the same angle we tested out the different size eggs and found the smaller egg was slower!

The ramp with the lowest angle also had the slowest moving egg with both big and small eggs. The big egg even had a hard time getting started, but it did get rolling after a few seconds. It couldn't catch up but finished once it got in motion.
The egg on the high angle ramped zoomed down super fast with the help of gravity! OLDER KIDS:
You can still extend the learning with our plastic Easter egg races activity by introducing friction and the role friction plays as an external force. Grab a towel and place it over a ramp to test the differences in speed.

Additionally, you can talk about potential and kinetic energy. The egg at the top of the ramp has stored potential energy as the egg goes into motion it is using it's kinetic energy and the stored energy is decreasing! The energy an object has in motion is called kinetic energy. This energy is also determined a lot by the object itself!

Try it out! Experiment with these ideas and have fun! This is a great way to include both older kids and younger kids in the learning experience and have both age groups take away important information. Have a bowl of marbles ready that can be added to the eggs!
YOUNGER KIDS:
After we were finished egg races with the plastic eggs, Liam tried out some cars and balls as well. He found it very interesting to move the ramps up and down and guess what would happen to the different items he tried. Hands on experimenting can be and should be playful for young kids!

Pick up simple supplies to make Plastic Easter Egg Races this spring!

All our best Easter science ideas!

FUN EASTER STEM CHALLENGE ACTIVITIES Time for Saturday Science Blog Hop Link Up!
What Can the Wind Do? from Stir the Wonder

What is Science? from Lemon Lime Adventures

Rainbow Milk from The Joys of Boys

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Plastic Easter Egg Races for Exploring Easter Science with Kids

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Create a simple Easter science and physics experiment with plastic Easter egg races using all those plastic eggs you have been collecting! Egg races are perfect for playful learning and this egg race experiment is quick set up too! Holiday themed science and STEM activities are the way to go with young scientists!