First Grade Science Lesson: Understanding Pushes and Their Effect on Movement

📚 What are Pushes?

A push is when you use force to move something away from you. Think about pushing a toy car, or pushing a swing to get it going. Pushes make things move!

• 👉 Definition: A push is a force that moves an object away.
• 🚗 Example: Pushing a toy car across the floor.
• 🤸‍♀️ Another Example: Pushing a friend on a swing.

🧑‍🏫 Lesson Objectives

• 🎯 Identify: Students will be able to identify pushes in everyday scenarios.
• ✍️ Describe: Students will be able to describe what happens when they push an object.
• 🤝 Explain: Students will explain how pushes affect the movement of objects.

🍎 Materials

• 🧸 Toys: Toy car, ball, building blocks.
• 🪁 Outdoor Items: A swing set (optional), a wagon.
• 📝 Worksheet: Printed worksheet with pictures to identify pushes (example questions below).
• 🖍️ Coloring Supplies: Crayons or markers.

☀️ Warm-up (5 minutes)

Ask students to stand up and demonstrate different types of pushes. For example:

• 🙌 Pushing an imaginary wall: "Let's all push against this imaginary wall! What do you feel?"
• 🚪 Pretend to open a heavy door: "Now, let's push open a very heavy door!"
• 📦 Moving a box: "Let's imagine we are pushing a box."

✍️ Main Instruction

1. Introduction (10 minutes)
   • 🗣️ Discussion: Begin by asking students what they already know about pushes. "What happens when you push something?"
   • 🖼️ Visual Aid: Show pictures or short videos of different types of pushes (e.g., pushing a stroller, pushing a door open).
2. Activity 1: Toy Exploration (15 minutes)
   • 🧪 Experiment: Divide students into small groups and give each group a set of toys (car, ball, blocks).
   • 🖐️ Hands-on: Instruct them to explore how they can make the toys move by pushing them.
   • 📝 Observation: Ask them to describe what happens when they push each toy. "What happens when you push the car harder?" "What happens when you push the ball gently?"
3. Activity 2: Worksheet (15 minutes)
   • 🖍️ Coloring: Distribute the worksheet with pictures. Ask students to circle the pictures that show a push.
   • ✏️ Labeling: Have students label the direction of the push with an arrow.

📝 Assessment

Evaluate student understanding through observation during activities and review of their completed worksheets.

• ✅ Worksheet Review: Check if students correctly identified and labeled pushes in the pictures.
• 🗣️ Class Discussion: Ask students to provide real-life examples of pushes they see every day.
• 💡 Bonus Question: What happens when you push something really, really hard?

🧪 Practice Quiz

• ❓ A boy kicks a ball. Is this a push?
• ❓ A girl is pulling a wagon. Is she using a push?
• ❓ You open a door by pushing it. What force are you using?
• ❓ What happens when you push a toy car harder?
• ❓ Give an example of something you push every day.
• ❓ If you and your friend both push a box, what happens?
• ❓ Can you push something without touching it?