Investigate Patterns of Forces Activities for 4th Grade Science

This forces and motion unit for 4th grade students, aligned with TEKS 4.7, guides them through investigating gravity, friction, and magnetism. Students engage in hands-on, differentiated station labs, exploring how forces affect objects through demos, readings, and activities like card sorts and writing responses. The unit follows the 5E Model, with editable PowerPoints, interactive notebooks (in English and Spanish), and choice projects that extend learning. Assessments, review worksheets, and STAAR 2.0-aligned practice materials are included for evaluation. These resources are designed for both in-class and virtual learning environments. The resources below will give students a comprehensive understanding of investigating patterns of forces. All of the following materials are also included in the Kesler Science Membership.

This engaging forces and motion unit helps 4th grade students plan and conduct descriptive investigations to explore gravity, friction, and magnetism. Aligned with TEKS 4.7, the lesson includes editable PowerPoints, worksheets, choice projects, and assessments, all designed for differentiated, student-led learning with minimal prep.

Students will explore essential questions about descriptive investigations and how patterns of forces affect objects. The unit follows the 5E Model, covering engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation stages.

In the exploration phase, students engage in differentiated station labs, with nine stations offering both input (such as hands-on demos, reading passages, and videos) and output activities (like card sorts, writing responses, and illustrations) to test forces. The explanation phase includes editable PowerPoints and interactive notebooks, available in English and Spanish.

For elaboration, students complete choice projects to extend learning, while evaluation includes STAAR 2.0-aligned assessment questions, review worksheets, and practice materials. The resources are flexible for in-class or virtual learning environments.

This student-led station lab, aligned with the 2021 TEKS 4.7 standard on forces like gravity, friction, and magnetism, offers a hands-on, modular approach to learning. It engages 4th grade students in exploring patterns of forces through nine stations, which can be completed independently or in small groups. The stations include tasks like watching videos, reading passages, and conducting investigations, all designed to allow students to direct their own learning while the teacher facilitates.

Stations cover both input and output activities. Input stations like "Explore It!" and "Watch It!" introduce concepts through multimodal resources, while output stations like "Organize It!" and "Illustrate It!" let students demonstrate understanding through hands-on tasks, drawing, and written responses. A bonus "Challenge It!" station offers additional activities for advanced students.

This resource can be used in both in-person and virtual classrooms, with all necessary materials provided, including differentiated readings in English and Spanish. It’s a low-prep, high-engagement way to explore physics concepts while saving time on preparation.

The Investigate Patterns of Forces Student Choice Projects align with the 2021 TEKS physics standard 4.7, giving 4th graders the option to choose a project that suits their output style. The project page outlines six student-led options and a “design your own” project. It includes an editable grading rubric for teacher, peer, or self-assessment, which teachers can modify as needed. This resource is also part of the Investigate Patterns of Forces Complete Lesson for TEKS 4.7.

These flexible, multimodal projects offer students creative and personalized ways to demonstrate their understanding. The materials are designed to use standard classroom supplies like paper, markers, and scissors, with many options available for digital completion.

The Investigating Forces Science and ELA Integrated Writing Activity helps 4th grade students demonstrate their understanding of the effects of forces through creative writing about an invention. This TEKS-aligned activity encourages exploration of forces like push/pull, gravity, friction, and magnetism. It’s designed to support virtual learning, keeping students engaged both inside and outside the classroom.

The activity includes teacher directions, a project guide, full and half-sheet rubrics, and projection-friendly handouts. Students can use a full-sized layout template for their writing, available in color or black and white, or a half-sheet version for journals. A digital PowerPoint version is also provided, easily adaptable for Google Slides, allowing for flexible use in-person or remotely.

This resource can be used for various purposes such as a cross-curricular project, pre-test assessment, elaboration for early finishers, or even extra credit. It is ideal for differentiation and TELPAS samples. These writing activities can also be displayed on bulletin boards or compiled into student anthologies.

The WIKI Tickets© Physical Science Set offers 37 formative assessments for 3rd–5th grade science, designed to check student understanding in an engaging and colorful way. Each topic comes with five formats: a full-screen display for projection, three handout versions (full, split, and quarter-page sizes), and a digital interactive version compatible with PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Aligned with NGSS and TEKS standards for upper elementary science, this set covers various topics, including changes caused by pushes and pulls, energy transfer, forms of energy, properties of matter, and force interactions. Some topics feature multiple assessments, and each set includes a bonus table of contents for easy alignment reference.

These assessments are suitable for both in-person and virtual learning, allowing students to engage with the material on campus or remotely. WIKI Tickets© can be used as exit tickets, bellringers, or to check understanding at any time. Whether projected on a screen, printed as handouts, or assigned digitally, they provide versatile tools for gauging student progress.

Year-Round Resources

These year-round activities will increase your students' understanding of many middle school science topics. All of these activities are also included in the Kesler Science Membership.

Visual Data & Graphing

You're not alone if your students struggle with understanding graphs, charts, and tables. It's a skill that takes an enormous amount of practice. This resource will help students build a strong foundation in analyzing data and creating their own data visualizations.

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Bell Ringers and Warm-Ups

These middle school science bell ringers are an excellent way to engage your students as soon as they walk into your classroom. This comprehensive FULL YEAR resource includes everything you need to start off each science class with an interesting warm-up activity.

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Review Board Games

Each game board has been carefully designed to keep students engaged. There are 10 different action spaces on each board and dozens of question cards. All of the actions are related to science concepts and keep the students motivated throughout the game.

Each game is ready to play. Simply print out the board and the cards and let the students enjoy reviewing nine different units.

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Essential Questions and Standards

Below are the essential questions and standards associated with the lessons and activities included in the atoms unit. This topic is only one of more than 100 middle school science topics included in the Kesler Science Membership.

Essential Questions

What are descriptive investigations?
How do patterns of gravity, friction and magnetism affect objects?

Standards

TEKS Science - 4.7 Investigating Patterns of Forces