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5th grade · Science · Unit 12 of 12

Gravity Pulls Down

Earth's gravity pulls objects toward its center.

What your child practices

Your child learns that Earth's gravity pulls everything toward the center of the planet, wherever you stand.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 5.5; 5.6 · Earth's gravity pulls objects toward its center, and changing how fast things fall

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Gravity pulls objects toward Earth's center.
  2. On every part of Earth, dropped objects fall “down” toward the center.
  3. Gravity keeps you on the ground and makes rivers flow downhill.

Example: A person on the other side of the world drops a pencil. Which way does it fall? Gravity pulls toward Earth's center everywhere. So it falls down to the ground, just like here. Answer: down, toward Earth's center

Gravity Pulls Down in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 12 of 12 in 5th grade Science, after Matter Moves in Ecosystems.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A leaf falls slowly but a rock falls fast. What slows the leaf?

    • Magnetism
    • No gravity
    • Air resistance
    • Light

  2. Question 2

    Why does a ball you throw up come back down?

    • Earth's gravity pulls it down
    • The air pushes it up
    • It is too light
    • The wind always blows down

  3. Question 3

    Earth's gravity pulls things toward…

    • the sun
    • Earth's center
    • the north only
    • the sky

  4. Question 4

    A person in Australia drops a pencil. It falls…

    • down, toward Earth's center, like everywhere else
    • it floats away
    • sideways
    • up into the sky

  5. Question 5

    What happens to a pencil that rolls off a desk?

    • It falls to the floor
    • It floats
    • It flies up
    • It disappears

  6. Question 6

    On a globe, people at the North Pole and South Pole both feel gravity pull…

    • toward the North Pole
    • toward space
    • toward Earth's center
    • sideways

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