Skip to content
Science · CONCEPTUAL · Ages 5–6

Pushes & Pulls

Understand that pushes and pulls are forces that can change the speed or direction of an object's motion, and compare the effects of different strengths and directions

Lesson: Pushes & Pulls

Subject: Science · Domain: Forces & Motion · Age band: 5–6 (tailored for gifted 5y9m, IQ 125–130+) Type: Conceptual · Centrality: Foundational · Taxonomy ID: mt_B3W5EfimJw Standards: ngss-k5:K-PS2-1 · Tailored for: Gifted asynchronous learner with strong math reasoning; conceptual depth priority over procedural repetition

A quick orientation: your son likely already knows that pushing something makes it move. That's the surface layer. The real lesson here is the deeper idea that a force is something you can describe with two properties — magnitude (how hard) and direction (which way) — and that changing either one changes what happens to the object. That's the seed of everything from Newton's laws to vector physics. Your job isn't to teach him that pushes exist. It's to help him start thinking in terms of magnitude and direction without realizing he's doing something sophisticated. Run the 60-second mastery check at the bottom first — if he sails through, jump straight to Stretch. That's where he'll actually live.

Why this matters

This is one of those deceptively simple topics that sits underneath an enormous amount of later science. When your son hits middle school physics, he'll meet vectors — quantities that have both size and direction. He'll meet net force — what happens when forces combine. He'll meet Newton's second law — that force equals mass times acceleration. None of that clicks unless the foundational intuition is solid: a force isn't just "making something go," it's a specific push or pull with a specific strength aimed a specific way.

Gifted kids sometimes skip past this conceptual grounding because they can memorize the vocabulary ("push," "pull," "force") without ever building the mental model. Then years later, force diagrams feel arbitrary instead of obvious. The goal today is to make magnitude and direction feel like things he can see and describe — almost like they're physical objects in the room.

You're also planting the seed that science is about comparing and measuring, not just naming. "It went fast" becomes "I pushed harder and it went faster." That shift — from qualitative to quantitative thinking — is arguably more important than the force content itself.

Learning objective

Your son will understand that pushes and pulls are forces that can be described by their strength (magnitude) and their direction, and that changing either one changes how an object moves.

By the end, you want him to be able to say something like:

"A push is a force. If I push harder, it goes faster. If I push sideways, it goes a different way. A pull is a force too, but it brings things toward me."

Before you sit down together

Materials

You probably already have everything. The rationale column explains why each item earns its place — not just what it is.

Item Why it's useful
A toy car or two (wheeled, rolls easily) Gives clear, visible motion that responds obviously to force strength
A small ball (tennis ball, foam ball) Different from the car — it rolls in any direction, no wheels to constrain it
A block or small box (light enough to push, heavy enough to resist) Shows that the same force produces different results on different objects — a door toward mass/inertia without naming it
A piece of string or yarn (~2 feet) Perfect for demonstrating pulls — your son can pull the block toward him and feel the tension
Index cards or sticky notes For drawing force arrows in the pictorial phase
A marker For those arrows — thick enough to see clearly
A hallway or open floor space He needs room to send things rolling

Best time of day for this lesson

You know your son's rhythm. Many five-year-olds have a cognitive peak mid-morning, after breakfast has settled but before the post-lunch dip. Some parents find that right after a movement break or outdoor time works beautifully — his body is already thinking about motion.

If he's tired, hungry, or has just come off a screen, consider waiting. This lesson is physical and exploratory, and it falls flat fast when energy is low. Twenty minutes of genuine engagement beats forty minutes of going through the motions.

Activity: "The Force Laboratory"

This is a Concrete → Pictorial → Abstract sequence adapted from the Singapore math approach. The idea: your son feels the concept with his body first, then represents it with drawings, then names and explains it with language. Each phase is short — don't linger unless he's genuinely fascinated.

Total time budget: about 18–20 minutes. If he's deep in exploration, let it run longer. If he's done in 12, move on.

Phase 1: Concrete — "Make it move" (5–7 minutes)

Set up in a hallway or open floor. Put the car, the ball, and the block in front of him. Your only instruction is an open invitation:

  • "These three things are in your force laboratory. Your job is to make each one move — but I want you to try different ways. Try a soft way. Try a hard way. Try pushing it forward. Try pushing it sideways. See what you notice."

Let him experiment. Don't correct, don't quiz. After two or three minutes of free exploration, sit beside him and try a few things yourself, narrating with rich vocabulary:

  • Watch this — I'm going to give the car a gentle push. See how it rolls slowly? Now I'm going to push harder — more force — and it goes faster. Same direction, more force, different result."

Then try direction:

  • Now I'm going to push it sideways instead of forward. Look — it turned. The direction of my push changed which way the car went."

Then introduce pulls with the string:

  • Pushes make things go away from you. What about pulls? Can you make the block come toward you? Here, use the string — wrap it around the block and pull. That's a force too, but it works the opposite way."

Key thing to watch for: Does he notice on his own that harder pushes = faster, or sideways pushes = different direction? If he names it himself ("the hard one went way further!"), that's gold — repeat his observation back to him with the formal word: "Yes! More force, more speed. You're thinking like a scientist."

Phase 2: Pictorial — "Draw the force" (4–5 minutes)

Bring out the index cards and marker. This is where you help him represent force visually — which is the bridge to the arrow diagrams he'll see in every physics class.

  • Let's draw what just happened. Here's the car — I'll draw a little car on this card. Now, how did I push it? Forward and hard. I'm going to draw a long arrow pointing forward. The arrow shows two things: the direction it points is the direction I pushed, and the length shows how hard — long means a lot of force, short means a little."

Draw one together. Then hand him a card:

  • Your turn. Can you draw what happened when you pushed the car sideways? Draw the car, then draw the arrow showing where it went."

Let him draw. If his car looks like a blob and his arrow is crooked, that's completely fine — you're not assessing art. You're checking whether he grasps that the arrow points in the direction of the force.

Try a few variations: - A short arrow for a gentle push - A long arrow for a strong push - An arrow pointing toward him for a pull

Some gifted kids at this age love the idea of "drawing the invisible." You might say: "Forces are invisible — we can't see them. But arrows are our way of making them visible on paper. Scientists do exactly this." That framing — that he's doing real science — often lands beautifully.

Phase 3: Abstract — "Name and explain" (4–5 minutes)

Now you shift from doing and drawing to talking. This is where conceptual understanding either holds up or reveals gaps.

  • Okay, scientist. Tell me — what's a force? What did you do to make things move today?"

Let him answer. Gently shape his language:

  • If he says "pushing," confirm: "Right — a push is one kind of force. What's the other kind?" (Pull.)
  • If he says "making it go fast," refine: "You made it go fast by using more force. What would happen if you used less?" (It'd go slower.)
  • If he says "I pushed it that way," extend: "So the direction of your push changed the direction it moved. Does that mean the car always goes the way you push it?" (Yes — and this is worth letting him articulate himself.)

Then try a prediction question — this is where you check for real understanding rather than repetition:

  • Imagine I have the block and the car. I push them both with the same force — same strength, same direction. Will they move the same way? Why or why not?"

This is a beautiful question because there's no single right answer to memorize. The block is heavier (more massive), so the same force moves it less. He might say "the block won't go as far" — that's intuitive physics. He might say "they'll go the same" — that's a misconception worth sitting with, not correcting instantly. You can say: "Interesting — let's test it." And then actually push both. Let the evidence do the teaching.

Phase 4: Wrap-up — "One sentence" (2–3 minutes)

Close by asking him to summarize in his own words:

  • Can you tell me one thing you learned in your force laboratory today?"

Accept anything that references force, push, pull, direction, or strength. If he says something like "Pushes are forces and pulls are forces and you can draw arrows for them" — that's a genuinely sophisticated summary. Celebrate it.

Some parents like to end by connecting to the real world: "You know what else is a force? When I open the door, I'm pushing it. When you drag your blanket to the couch, you're pulling it. Forces are everywhere." That kind of casual remark seeds future noticing without turning the lesson into homework.

Kid-response scripts

What your son says isn't always what he means. Here are some common moments and how to read them.

He says... What's happening You might try...
"This is boring / I already know this." He's likely past the surface layer. The basic push-pull distinction is trivial for him. Skip ahead to Stretch immediately. Say: "You're right — let's go deeper. What happens when TWO forces push at the same time?"
"The hard push makes it go further because it's stronger." He's connecting force strength to distance — which is correct and more sophisticated than "faster." Confirm the observation, then extend: "Does a stronger push also make it go faster, or just further? Let's test both."
"I don't want to draw the arrows." He may find drawing tedious or may not see the point of representing something he already understands. Try: "What if I draw and you tell me what to draw? You're the scientist, I'm the artist." Or skip drawing and do it verbally.
"Both go the same because you pushed them the same." He's reasoning from the force being equal, not considering the object's difference. Don't correct — test it. "Let's find out. Push the block and the car the same way. What happened?" Let evidence teach.
"Pulls and pushes are the same thing." He's noticed they're both forces — which is actually a deep insight! "You're onto something — they ARE both forces. What's different about them?" Let him articulate that pushes go away and pulls come toward.
"What if I push AND pull at the same time?" He's thinking about combined forces — this is genuinely advanced. This is a Stretch moment. Follow his lead. See Stretch option 2.
(No response, just keeps playing) He may be in deep exploratory mode — which is valid learning. Give it another minute, then join: "I notice you're trying lots of things. What are you wondering about?"

Common misconceptions to watch for

Gifted kids can articulate correct-sounding answers while holding subtly wrong mental models. These are the ones to keep an eye on.

What you see What's actually going on How to gently address it
He says a push "gives the car energy" or "makes it have power." He's conflating force with energy — common and not wrong, but imprecise. Force is an interaction; energy is a property. You don't need to correct this heavily at age 5. Accept it: "That's a great way to think about it." If you want to refine: "A push is called a force. It's the thing that makes the energy happen." Don't overcorrect — the distinction comes later.
He thinks a harder push makes the object "have more force inside it." He's attributing force to the object rather than to the interaction. This is a very common conceptual snag that persists into middle school. Try: "Where is the force? Is it in your hand, or in the car, or in between?" Let him wrestle. The answer is: the force is the interaction — the push itself.
He draws all arrows the same length regardless of force strength. He's using the arrow as a label (something happened here) rather than as a representation (this is how much and which way). Say: "I notice you drew the same arrow for the soft push and the hard push. Can you make one longer? Which one should be longer?"
He predicts a sideways push will still send the car forward. He hasn't fully internalized that force direction determines motion direction. Test it physically. "Let's try it and see." The car will curve or go sideways — let him observe and update his prediction.
He says a pull is "not really a force" because it's different from a push. He's over-focused on push as the prototype and sees pull as a separate category. Both are forces. Try: "A pull is a force — it's just a force that goes toward you instead of away from you. Same family, different direction."

Stretch (where the real lesson lives for your son)

This is the section to live in. Your son almost certainly grasps the core concept — pushes and pulls make things move — already. These extensions go deeper, not just faster. Each one is about 5 minutes. Pick the one that catches his interest; you don't need to do all of them.

Stretch 1: "What if there are TWO forces?"

Place the car between you. Both of you put a finger on it.

  • What if I push this way and you push the other way at the same time? What happens?"

Let him predict, then test. Then try: - Both pushing the same direction (forces add) - You pushing harder than him (the car goes your way) - Equal pushes opposite directions (the car doesn't move — balanced forces)

This is the intuitive foundation for net force and Newton's third law. Don't use those terms — just let him experience the phenomenon. The key question: "If two forces push opposite ways and they're the same strength, does the car move?"

Stretch 2: "Why does the car stop?"

He'll notice the car eventually stops rolling. This is a beautiful opening.

  • You pushed the car — it was moving. But now it stopped. What happened? Did the force run out?"

This opens the door to friction without naming it. He might say "the floor stopped it" or "it ran out of push." You can say: "The floor is pushing back on the car — that's called friction. It's a force that slows things down." If he's intrigued, try the same car on different surfaces (carpet vs. wood vs. tile) and compare how far it rolls.

Stretch 3: "Force arrows on the real world"

Hand him a stack of sticky notes and take a walk through your house.

  • Every time you see something you could push or pull, put a sticky note on it and draw the force arrow showing which way the force goes."

He'll find: doors (push or pull), drawers (pull), light switches (push or flip), chairs (push to slide in), the refrigerator door (pull). This turns the whole house into a force diagram. It's representational thinking applied to his actual environment — deeply satisfying for a pattern-seeking kid.

Stretch 4: "The heavy question" (mass and force)

Bring out objects of very different weights — a feather or crumpled paper, a block, and something heavier like a book or a small weighted box.

  • Push each one with the same amount of force. What do you notice?"

He'll see that the same force produces different amounts of motion depending on the object. This is the intuitive seed of F = ma (Newton's second law). You don't need the formula — just the question: "Why do you think the heavy one didn't go as far?" His answer might be surprisingly insightful.

Stretch 5: "Design a force challenge"

Give him an open-ended engineering prompt:

  • Can you design a way to get this ball from here to that spot across the room using ONLY pushes — no carrying, no throwing?"

He might build a ramp, use a stick to push it, or figure out a series of taps. This is the seed of design thinking and connects to the dependent topic "Testing Push & Pull Designs." Let him problem-solve. Don't solve it for him.

Quick mastery check (60 seconds)

Three quick prompts. If he answers all three clearly, he's got the core concept — jump to Stretch.

  • [ ] "What are the two kinds of forces we talked about?" (Push and pull.)
  • [ ] "If you want the car to go faster, what do you change about your push?" (Push harder / use more force.)
  • [ ] "If you push the car sideways instead of forward, what happens?" (It goes sideways / changes direction.)

If he passes all three in under a minute, the lesson proper is review for him. Spend your time in Stretch — that's where his real learning lives today.

Formal mastery check

From the taxonomy evidence strings. Your son should be able to:

  • [ ] Describe push and pull as types of force that make objects move, speed up, slow down, or change direction.
  • [ ] Compare the effects of a gentle push versus a strong push on the same object.
  • [ ] Predict the direction an object will move based on the direction of the applied force.

Assessment prompt: Can you explain that pushing a toy car harder makes it go faster, and pushing it sideways makes it change direction?

Vocabulary to use naturally

Drop these into conversation without making a big deal of them. Your son will absorb them through context.

  • Force — a push or a pull; the thing that can change how something moves
  • Magnitude — how strong or weak a force is ("the magnitude of your push")
  • Direction — which way the force points ("the direction of the force")
  • Applied — the force you put on something ("the force you applied to the car")
  • Compare — to look at how two things are different or the same
  • Predict — to guess what will happen before you try it

What comes next

This topic is a gateway to several important dependent concepts. Once your son is solid here, you might explore:

  1. Friction & Surfaces — Why do things stop? How does the floor "push back"? This is the natural next question after "Why does the car stop?" and many kids ask it on their own during this lesson.
  2. Balanced & Unbalanced Forces — What happens when two forces act at once? If your son enjoyed Stretch 1 ("two forces"), this is the formal version.
  3. Speed and Energy — Connecting force to how fast things go and how much energy they carry. This bridges nicely from his math strengths (he can quantify speed changes).

If this lesson didn't land

Some days lessons just don't click. That's not a sign of anything — it's Tuesday. Here are some fallback strategies:

  • Try a different manipulative. If the car wasn't engaging, try a balloon on a string (you can blow it up and let it go — the air rushing out is a force). Or try a marble run. Or just go outside and push each other on a swing — that's a force lesson in disguise.

  • Change the time of day. If he was tired or distracted, try again after a snack or after outdoor play. Some kids need to move their bodies before they can sit and think.

  • Shorten everything. Do just Phase 1 (Concrete) for five minutes and call it a day. Come back to drawing and talking tomorrow. There's no rule that says a lesson must happen all at once.

  • Skip and return. If he's not interested, set it aside entirely. Come back in a week. Sometimes the concept just needs to marinate. In the meantime, let him play — he's probably learning physics through play without anyone calling it a lesson.

  • Check for a different entry point. If the toy car approach didn't spark, try something from his own interests. Does he love trains? Talk about the engine pulling the cars. Does he love building? Talk about pushing blocks into place. The concept is the same; the context can be whatever he already cares about.

Source

  • Taxonomy ID: mt_B3W5EfimJw
  • Dataset: Forces & Motion progression (K–5 science)
  • Standards: ngss-k5:K-PS2-1 — Plan and conduct investigations to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object
  • Tailored for: Gifted asynchronous learner, age 5y9m, IQ 125–130+, math 2–3 grade level, reading 98th percentile, developmentally 5
  • Generated by: Claude lesson plan generator, parent-facing format