What is a force?

Our first week of science was simple and fun. I introduced the idea of force as a push or pull to the children, gave them a bunch of examples, asked them to think of some of their own examples.  We watched an episode of Sid the Science Kid about forces (Sid's Super Kick). We built a simple Newton-meter (from the ScienceWiz Physics kit) to measure forces during the rest of the unit and used it to measure gravity pulling on an apple.

Then they all got out their science journals and drew a picture related to what we'd discussed with a written explanation.  Well, Athena wrote her explanation; Hulk and Goblin explained theirs to me, and I did the writing.

Then we went outside to play in the backyard, and that was where the real learning fun began.   While they were playing, I asked them which kind of forces they were using (and which were acting ON them) and the directions of the forces.

They were really excited that they understood what I was asking and soon, all three were shouting out answers and coming up with lots of their own ideas about forces and how they work.

This was probably their favorite demonstration of the day, and they kept at it for a long time.  They each tried hitting the ball first very softly, then a "normal" hit, and finally as hard as they could to see what would happen each time.  They discovered that the harder you hit the ball, the farther and faster it goes.  Little scientists coming up with their own ideas and testing them; it's all natural for them.

--Little Miss Crazy