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Kindergarten · Science · Unit 2 of 9

Push & Pull

Make things move

What your child practices

Telling pushes from pulls, and seeing how a bigger push, an object's shape and its weight change how it moves.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: K-PS2-1; K-PS2-2 · how pushes and pulls of different strengths and directions change how things move

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A push moves a thing away from you.
  2. A pull moves a thing toward you.
  3. A bigger push makes a thing go farther.

Example: You open a door toward you. Push or pull? The door comes toward you. Toward you is a pull. Answer: pull

Push & Pull in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 2 of 9 in Kindergarten Science, after What Living Things Need and before Weather & Seasons.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    Which is easier to push?

    • 🚚a big truck
    • 🚗a toy car

  2. Question 2

    A ball rolls on a hill. Which way does it go?

    ⛰️
    • ⬇️down
    • ⬆️up

  3. Question 3

    Which one will roll?

    • 📕book
    • ⚽ball
    • 📦box

  4. Question 4

    Push or pull? Tap a picture, then its basket.

    Sort into: 👐 push · 🪢 pull

    • 🎣reel in a fish
    • ⚽kick a ball
    • 🥕pull out a carrot
    • 🚗push a toy car
    • 🎳roll a bowling ball
    • 🛷pull a sled

  5. Question 5

    How can you stop a rolling toy car?

    🚗
    • ✋put your hand in front
    • 👏clap your hands
    • 👀look at it

  6. Question 6

    You reel in a fish. Is that a push or a pull?

    🎣
    • 🪢pull
    • 👐push

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