Summary Students use playdough to show different kinds of forces Science content Physics: Motion and Forces, Newton’s Laws, Gravity (K, 2, 6) Science competencies (+ questioning + manipulation + others that are in every activity) Planning/conducting: data collection/recording (K up) Lessons activity is in Forces in toys Materials playdough (see recipe) Procedure Introduce students to the concept of force, if it hasn't been done already: a force is a push or a pull. Hand out a ball of playdough each (about the size of a golf ball). Show students how to make it into a sausage. Ask students to bend/twist/manipulate their sausage into a new shape, or simply move it along the desk. They should think of where their fingers apply force to make the new shape/move the play dough to a new position. Ask students to draw the new shape/position, and add arrows to their drawing where forces were applied. Optional: introduce names for the things that forces can do to an object (push/pull/twist/bend/stretch/tear). Gather group to show shapes and describe the forces used to make them. Attached documents forces_in_playdough_sheet_for_prod_workshop.pdf catapult_distances_worksheet.pdf Grades taught Gr 1 Gr 2
