Grade 1 Science
Core Unit: Motion

Unit overview:

In this unit the students will be involved with detecting motion and producing motion. They will be given opportunities to identify where motion exists around them and to describe the various types of motion. They will examine the relationship between force and motion.

Related units:

In grades 3 and 5, the Optional Units Simple Machines and Machines and Work extend the concepts introduced here.

Suggested themes:

change, how things move, machines

Factors of scientific literacy which should be emphasized:

Common Essential Learnings foundational objectives which should be emphasized:

To use a wide range of possibilities to develop students' knowledge of the concept of motion. (COM)

To develop an understanding of how scientific knowledge is created, evaluated, refined, and changed. (CCT)

Science foundational and learning objectives:

Recognize that motion is one type of change.
1. Compare descriptions or pictures of an environment at different times to discover evidence of change.
2. Identify whether an observed change involved motion.
Describe some different aspects of motion.
1. Observe and describe motion.
2. Observe that objects can move at different speeds.
3. Discuss how motion can be measured.
4. Observe the relationship between friction and motion.
Explain the relationship between force and motion.
1. Observe the effects of forces in nature.
2. Appreciate that motion is caused by a force.
3. Identify some ways that machines move things.

Suggested Activities:

Here are some questions to stimulate a discussion on motion. The discussion could involve some drawings which the students make to illustrate some types of motion.
- How do you tell if something moves?
- What are some different types of motion?
- Could you illustrate one type of motion?
- What is the same about all types of motion?
- What types of things can move?
- What types of things are hard to move?
- If you want to move, how can you do it?
- What can cause motion?
- What are some places in this room to where you can't move?
- How is fast motion different from slow motion?
- How is the flight of a bird and the flight of a plane the same? How are they different?
- What questions do you have about motion?
- Is it easier for a kitten to play with a ball of yarn on a tile floor or on a rug?
- Why is it difficult to ride a bicycle through soft sand?
Some of their answers could be oral; some could be drawn.
Factors: B1, B2, B3, B5, C2, C3, F1, F2, F3, G2
Objectives: 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 1, 3, 5
Common Essential Learnings: Communication. Such questions require students to bring their experience to their learning, and also act as models for questions which the students can pose. The questions use the students' first hand experience to help make sense of the concept of motion.
Tape a bar or a folded sheet of lead to the inside of an empty coffee can which has a plastic lid. Lead may be borrowed from a high school chemistry lab. If lead is not available, you could use a bar of iron or a heavy rock. Half-fill another empty can with sand or small stones, and fill a third can completely with sand. Leave a fourth can empty. Make sure that the lids are securely fastened. One wrap of adhesive tape around the seam between the plastic lid and the can and then several wraps lengthwise should do it. If you have some extra plastic lids, one at each end balances the can to allow it to roll evenly. Gently roll each can across the floor. Compare their motions.
Can the students imitate how the various types of cans roll? This could be integrated into the dance strand of Arts Education.
Factors: B1, B5, C3, E3, F1, F2, G1, G2
Objectives: 2.1, 2.2
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5, 8
Common Essential Learnings: Critical and Creative Thinking. The presentation of discrepant events -- events which are outside the viewer's range of experience and produce results which are counter-intuitive -- is useful to challenge the students' conceptions of how the world works, and to keep them open to change. It requires the students to make careful observations, which strengthen their perceptual abilities.
List examples of motion that are seen every day. Demonstrate various types of motion: the back and forth motion of a pendulum; the circular motion of a pen tied to the end of a string and swung like a lasso; the circular motion of a skipping rope during single or double-dutch skipping; the repetitive motion of combing one's hair or vacuuming. The up and down motion of a rubber ball dropped from the height of 2 metres, the flight of a paper airplane, the fall of a feather or a flat piece of tissue paper, or the fall of maple, elm, or dandelion seeds are other examples. Ask the students to give examples where they have seen that type of motion in another situation. Have the students bring reports of different types of motion that they see when they are out of the classroom during the next few days.
This activity could be integrated into the Arts Education dance and drama strands by asking the students to imitate the types of motion in this activity in their body motions. They could also use hand puppets to illustrate the motions. The students could also describe any motions which are being used in the dance strand of Arts Education.
Factors: B1, B2, B3, B5, C2, C3, E3, F1, F3, G1, G3
Objectives: 2.1, 2.2
Assessment Techniques: 3, 5
Common Essential Learnings: Communication, Independent Learning. The students must find ways to describe the motion and to ask questions which will lead to understanding of the nature of motion. It also encourages them to explore beyond what is provided in the lesson.
Bring into the classroom a variety of objects (skis, skates, crutches, wheel chairs, roller skates, bicycle, skateboard, snowshoe, paddle board) which make it easier for people to move along different surfaces. Explain, or have students discuss and explain, why each one works to make it easier to move. Students can identify one surface on which that object can be used to help move, and one surface on which it would make it harder to move.
How do moss bags, cradle boards, and baby sacks (for example Snugglies (tm)) make it easier for parents to move when carrying their children? Can stairs help people move? How are stairs better for moving people than a ramp? How are they not as good? Where did the idea for snowshoes come from? What animals have feet that act like snowshoes? Suppose that there were no elevators to carry people in buildings. What would be one advantage and one disadvantage?
Factors: B2, B3, C3, D1, E3, F1, F2, G1, G2
Objectives: 2.1, 3.2, 3.3
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5
Common Essential Learnings: Technological Literacy. Through examining examples of technologies which assist human motion, the students will be able to appreciate both the benefits and the limitations of the devices. This approach introduces the concept that there are technologies which are appropriate for one use but inappropriate in another context.
Have the students look at the soles of their shoes. Why do some shoes have treads on them? Does anyone have shoes that have hard leather soles? Some people rub the hard leather soles of their new shoes with sandpaper to make them rough. Why would they do that? How does walking on a carpet, on a tile or linoleum floor, and on grass or ice wearing running shoes compare to when they have plastic bags (as tight fitting as possible) over their shoes?
Rub a piece of wooden block covered with sandpaper and a block covered with smooth paper over a piece of spruce plywood. Which moves more easily? Friction is the force which hinders slipping. What are some types of sport shoes which help produce friction?
Factors: B2, C2, F1, F2, G2
Objectives: 2.4, 3.2
Assessment Techniques: 3, 5, 8
Common Essential Learnings: Critical and Creative Thinking. These activities provide opportunities for students to think critically about something that is such a natural part of their lives that it often goes unnoticed. It gives them a chance to make careful observations and then to discuss these.
Look for a relationship between the ways an animal moves and its physical characteristics. Rabbits and deer can run quickly. Why? Why do turtles move slowly? How do snails move? How do grasshoppers or crickets move?
Ask the students to make careful observation of the ways that their legs and arms move when they walk and run and then compare those motions to the way the limbs of animals move when they walk and run.
Factors: B2, B5, C3, F1, F2, G1, G3
Objectives: 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2
Assessment Techniques: 3, 4, 5, 9
Make use of the gym to integrate science into students' fitness activities. Discuss the ways animals and plantsmove. Have students demonstrate slithering, hopping, crabwalking, running, galloping, cantering, walking, swimming,swaying, etc. Have groups of students demonstrate specificways of moving while others describe what they observe. Makechanges in the rate of movement. Change the height at whichstudents work--low, high, middle range. If climbingapparatus is available and/or benches, beams and horses, thestudy of movement can extend into climbing, swinging withropes, balancing, and movement up and down, backward andforward. Stress safety. Extend the Numeracy aspect of motionby having students hop a certain number of times, spin tothe left or right, make a giant leap or ten baby steps whilea partner measures the movement in standard or non-standardunits. Motion may be extended into the Arts Educationcurriculum through dance and movement to music. Drama alsohas movement incorporated into roles of the participants.Movements may be scripted and teacher planned, or can becreated by students as they demonstrate their interpretationof the music or the role being played. Have students work inpairs to mirror or mimic the movement of a partner.

Factors: B1, B2, B3, B5, C2, C3, E3, G1, G2, G3
Objectives: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5

Common Essential Learnings: Communication, Critical and Creative Thinking, Numeracy, Personal and Social Values and Skills. Students must orally describe motions they observe, listen and take turns as they perform certain movements, add to and hear the discussion of other students and the teacher.
Use seasonal pictures to discuss ways people, animals andmachines move under different weather conditions. Havestudents notice the changes in the environment. How doforces such as wind, water, snow, heat, cold affect theenvironment, people, animals, machines, etc.? Discuss.Chart. Again the gym or outdoor activity can be used to showhow the environment changes movement. Students may pretendto be an animal in different seasons, a person, or amachine. Discuss the use of roller skates or roller blades,skis, skates, snowmobiles, toboggans, wagons, bicycles, orkites in different seasons. How do they move? What forcesare used? Discuss pushing and pulling and how air (wind),people, and machines all affect motion. Discuss safety indifferent seasons as we move from place to place. Useriddles to have students identify different kinds of motionor objects which demonstrate a kind of motion: e.g.; I am onthe playground and people go back and forth on me as theyplay. What am I? (swing) I am on the playground. Two peoplebalance on me as they play. I go up and down. What am I?(teeter totter) Use motion and movement in Arts Education asstudents play a role in drama, demonstrate movements indance associated with the seasons, create pictures showingmovement, or sing, sway and interpret music.

Factors: B1, B2, B3, B5, C2, C3, F1, F2, G1, G2, G3
Objectives: 1.1, 1.2, 3.1
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5

Common Essential Learnings: Communication, Critical and Creative Thinking, Numeracy, Personal and Social Values and Skills. Students describe movements and differences in environment that they observed, while they listened and took turns. Science can be integrated into many subject areas, and vice-versa.
Take a walk around the school, playground, and/orneighbourhood looking for ways things move around us. If thewalk can be done with an older "buddy" classmate or withseveral adults, recording of kinds of movements observed canoccur on the walk, and compiled or shared later. If that isnot possible, students may share what they saw at theconclusion of the walk as a large chart of "Motion" is made.Categorizing can occur from the information on the chart. The object or thing moving and/or the kind of movement can be charted: birds flying, swing swinging, leaves blowing, clock hand turning, mop scrubbing, etc.

This activity can be extended to include a "homework" component as students work with a parent or older sibling, or sitter to compile a list of "Motions In My Home". Students may illustrate their findings, count the number of objects that show movement that they have listed, and share with the class. Findings for individual and/or the group may be graphed to show kinds of movement--rotational, forward-backward (arc), one directional, fast or slow, etc. This extends children's critical thinking as they make decisions about the categories to use.

Factors: B1, B2, B3, B5, C2, C3, E3, G1, G2, G3
Objectives: 2.1, 2.2, 3.1
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5

Common Essential Learnings: Communication, Critical and Creative Thinking, Numeracy, Independent Learning, Personal and Social Values and Skills. Students observe and describe motions they see and share that information with others.
In class, do some simple experiments with motion or set up acentre at which students may work as time permits.
1. Attach an object such as an eraser to a string. Suspend it from a piece of doweling which is placed horizontally between two tables, desks, etc. Allow enough room for the eraser to swing as a pendulum or move in a circular motion. Tape the doweling so it will not move. Have students hit the eraser and watch the movement. What does it do? Does it move fast or slow? Why? Does it eventually stop? Why? Have students use their own bodies to demonstrate the movements they observed. Compare these movements to the motion of a clock pendulum, arm movement as you walk, a swing, etc.
2. Create a simple ramp with a piece of wood and books to vary the height of the ramp. Have students work with various objects such as marbles, toy cars, toilet paper tubes, different sized plastic canisters such as pill bottles or film containers, aluminum or tin cans, etc. Coffee cans (one filled with sand, another half filled, and a third empty) work well as containers to roll down a ramp. Put a lid on each end to assist in rolling the cans straight down the ramp. Predict what will happen prior to the activity. Then roll items down the ramp. How far do each of the items roll? Use standard or non-standard measurement. Discuss why objects roll different distances. What causes them to stop?
3. Make a pinwheel. Blow on it or move it through the air so that it rotates. What forces are acting on it? Discuss.
4. Experiment with floating and sinking using water, salt water, or clear soda water as the substance into which a variety of objects are put to see if they sink or float. Have students predict before they try each object. Use items such as small pieces of wood, eraser, elastic band, paper clip, metal nuts, raisins and popcorn kernels dried in the oven, bean seeds, small plastic toys, marble, etc. Have students observe closely as objects are tried in each solution. What happens? Record in chart form. Have students record their observations using pictures and print.
5. Experiment with change and the forces of heating and cooling by blowing up two balloons to the same size. Place one in the freezer for a half hour. Compare its size to the balloon remaining at room temperature. Place a balloon over the mouth of a bottle which has been chilled. Allow it to then remain at room temperature. What happens to the balloon? Ask students to observe the change in the balloon. Discuss and record observations.
6. As a demonstration put a spoonful of baking soda in some diluted vinegar. Ask students to observe the change. What happens? Discuss. What forces are at work?
7. Spin a top. Bounce a ball. Roll a small car across a desk. Have students identify the kind of motion involved. Have students close their eyes and listen to the motion of some object. Guess what moved by its sound. Have students work in pairs with a number of manipulatives on the table between them. Have one student close his/her eyes. The other student moves just one object either by position or removal. The first person must then tell what moved. Take turns.
8. Drop a small pebble or other object into a shallow pan of water. What kind of motion is observed in the water as a result of the force of the falling object?
9. Stretch elastics around a shoe box without its lid. Strum them. What do you observe?
10. Experiment with friction using a book, string, and a spring scale. Pull the book across a flat surface such as a desk. Read the spring scale to measure the force required to pull it. Repeat by pulling it on a rug. Repeat on the floor by laying some pencils in a row and placing the book on them. Discuss how friction affected each movement. If this is too difficult for individual students, have them work in small groups with adult supervision or use the activity as a class demonstration and discussion.
11. Use the activity from grade four optional unit Light (#8) for observation of a churning or mixing motion. It requires milk, food colouring, and a little liquid soap. Have students discuss and then draw what they saw.
Factors:
B1, B2, B3, B5, C2, C3, E3, G1, G2, G3
Objectives: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 3.1, 3.2
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5, 6

Common Essential Learnings: Communication, Critical and Creative Thinking, Numeracy, Personal and Social Values and Skills. Students are actively involved in experimenting with motion. They observe, take turns, and measure as they work with simple materials. Recording of observations whether in picture or print extends the learning.
Bring a goldfish (or two) in a fish bowl into class. Havestudents observe movements of the fish in different directions. What fins do they use to move forward? back? turn? Have students record their observations in pictures and/or print. Discuss findings. Create a fish puppet with a paper plate and fins made from tissue paper. Present a puppet play or use your fish to do actions to a poem about a fish. Share. How do other sea (water) creatures move--octopus, whale, dolphin, clam, crab, sea cucumber, frogs, etc.? Discuss. Allow students to act out movements of these and other creatures. Share literature on sea and freshwater creatures and their movements with the class.
Factors: B1, B2, B3, B5, C2, C3, E3, G1, G2, G3
Objectives: 2.1, 2.2
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5

Common Essential Learnings: Communication, Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Values and Skills. Students must orally describe motions they observe, listen, and take turns as they perform certain movements, discuss, and hear from other students and the teacher.
An outdoor activity which is of high interest is to observeinsects moving. Put some breadcrumbs near an ant hill. Watchthe movement as they carry them away. How do they move?Observe bugs that crawl or butterflies that move their wingsas they fly. Compare these to vehicles and airplanes. Howare they alike and different? Observe moving caterpillars.Have students demonstrate these movements in gym. Follow upby creating a big book which can cover motion of machines,people, or animals separately or as one book. To preventchildren from drawing and colouring the entire page prior totitling or identifying the activity, have students fold up atwo to three centimetre strip along the bottom edge of theirpaper for printing in a sentence: e.g.; The car rolls. Thetires turn. The skis slide. A shovel digs. A boy runs. A bugcrawls. Students illustrate each page so they produce a bookfor classroom reading.

Factors: B1, B2, B3, B5, C2, C3, F1, G1, G2, G3
Objectives: 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
Assessment Techniques: 1, 3, 5, 6, 9

Common Essential Learnings: Communication, Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Values and Skills. Students create their own resources on motions they observe in their own environment.

Grade 1 Science Core Unit: Motion