Customer Reviews

Teaching Physics with Toys: Activities for Grades K-9

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This book offers 42 activities, evenly distributed among K-3, 4-6, and 7-9. As is often the case with such resources, those categories meant little to my eighth grade students or me. If you are a teacher, you know that you can adapt almost any activity to make it fit your needs.

The activities all include the following well developed sections: key science topics, key process skills, time required, materials - for getting ready - for introducing the activity - for the procedure - for variations and extensions, safety and disposal, getting ready, introducing the activity, procedure, variations and extensions, explanation, assessment options, cross-curricular integration, and some of the activities also have hand-out masters. (I wish they all did, but the assessment options provided are a good substitute.)

My only problem with the book is that some of the activities do require the purchase of a real toy. I found that sometimes this resulted in a time-consuming quest. I put an asterisk after those activities requiring items I found difficult to locate (but eventually did).

Activities: (1) Gravity Makes Things Fall (2) Comparing Mass Using A Pan Balance (3) Measuring Mass Using a Pan Balance (4) Ramps and Cars (5) Balloon on a String (6) Ping-Pong™ Puffer (7) Balancing Stick (8) The Skyhook (9) The Six-Cent Top (10) Bouncing Balls (11) Snap, Crackle, Pop (12) Magic Balloon (13) Magnet Cars (14) School Box Guitar (15) Forces and Motion (16) Crash Test (17) Two-Dimensional Motion (18) Understanding Speed* (requires wind-up walking toys) (19) Push-n-Go® (20) The Toy that Returns (21) Physics with a Darda® Coaster* (22) Exploring Energy with an Explorer Gun®* (23) Bounceability (24) Energy Toys Learning Center (25) Simple Machines with Lego® (26) Gear Up with a Lego Heli-Tractor (27) Levitation Using Static Electricity (28) Doc Shock* (requires Operation® game) (29) Walking Feet* (30) Downhill Racer (31) The Projectile Car (32) Balance Toys and the Center of Gravity (33) Whirling Stopper (34) Floating Cans (35) Falling Filters (36) Stick Around (37) Delta Dart (38) Mini Motor (39) Sound Tube (40) Bull Roarer (41) Singing Chimes (42) Tube Spectroscope

Although this book has what seem to be some really fun and illustrative experiments, I was a bit put off with how many toys and other prepatory materials I will need to purchase. Since I home school my daughter, I will be buying things for one time use. I'm not sure how much I will actually use this book.

This out-of-print book is a classic classroom resource, and a used copy is still worth adding to your teaching collection. However, please check out the completely updated version of this title; I am one of the contributing authors. Some of the activities are repeated, but they are totally revised with the new "easyguide" format. Plus, we've added a lot of brand new activities:Teaching Physics With Toys: Hands-on Investigations for Grades 3-9, Easyguide