Force Poem

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Force Poem

Push and pull,
Through friction of course,
To make things move,
You gotta' use force!
Forces, forces,
Are really first-rate,
They get objects moving,
Accelerate!
Forces are cool,
They work with a pulley,

Don't use it to fight,
Don't be a bully!
A rocket needs force,
To fly to the moon,

A car uses force,
To get us there soon,
A smile takes force,
To show off our teeth,
A knife needs some force,
To slice up some beets...
A horse uses force,
To win a horse race,
Without any force,
We're stuck in one place! 

Force Poem. (2014). Mr. R's World of Math and Science.

Retrieved from http://sciencepoems.net/sciencepoems/force.aspx#.VH1A7ovF_pI
Web Link

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Summary

Force Poem is an uncomplicated poem which offers clear examples of how we use force in everyday life. Through the poem, students learn what force is ("Push and pull, Through friction of course,
To make things move, You gotta' use force!") as well as the effects of force ("Without any force,
We're stuck in one place!"). They further learn where they can see force being exerted in the world around them, such as, through a pulley, bully, rocket, car, and horse, as well as while smiling and cutting with a knife.

Teaching Idea:  Poetry 

Personally, I enjoy this poem for its creativity and fun rhythm. As a teacher, this poem is excellent at offering so many real life examples of the scientific topic of force. I will start our lesson by having my students silently read this poem and then, with their neighbor, share which use of force jumped out at them the most upon reading the poem. We will then discuss as a whole class where we saw force being used in the poem and expand into other real world examples of force, always highlighting the attributes of force as we think. I will then ask my students to develop their own poem dealing with force. They need to include at least one example of using force which they have done in their own lives. They may use any form of poetry they like, such as, an acrostic poem (always a favorite with 5th graders), a diamante, cinquain, or perhaps a definition poem. Any style of poem that we have already learned how to use is fair game for this assignment. My goal is for my students to make connections between the uses of force they learned from Force Poem to other, everyday uses with which they are familiar.

We will follow up this poetry lesson with an experiment-based lesson. In it, my students will use the ideas they generated from their poetry to design an experiment that tests the effect of force on an object, making sure to use a real world, common occurrence.

This lesson corresponds with Science TEKS 5.2(D); 5.6(D).

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