Science Forces & Motionusually ages 5–6

Pushes & Pulls

Understand that pushes and pulls are forces that can change the speed or direction of an object's motion, and compare the effects of different strengths and directions

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Describe a push and a pull as types of force that make objects move, speed up, slow down, or change direction
Compare the effects of a gentle push versus a strong push on the same object
Predict the direction an object will move based on the direction of the applied force

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Try this together

Can your child explain that pushing a toy car harder makes it go faster, and pushing it sideways makes it change direction?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Drawing Force Diagramsages 7–12Understanding pushes and pulls as forces is supported by the arrow representation of magnitude and direction

Pushes & Pullsthis skill · ages 5–6

Unlocks

Testing Push & Pull Designsages 5–6Must understand pushes/pulls before analysing design solutions using them

Friction & Surfacesages 7–8Must understand forces change motion before comparing movement on different surfaces

Balanced & Unbalanced Forcesages 8–9Must understand pushes/pulls before investigating balanced vs unbalanced forces

Speed and energyages 9–10Must understand forces change motion before relating speed to energy

Resultant Forcesages 11–12KS3 forces as vectors extends KS2 introduction to pushes and pulls changing speed and direction

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 2 ACARA · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9SFU02medium confidenceFoundation · Science understanding

describe how objects move and how factors including their size, shape or material influence their movement

AC9S2U03low confidenceYear 2 · Science understanding

recognise that materials can be changed physically without changing their material composition and explore the effect of different actions on materials including bending, twisting, stretching and breaking into smaller pieces

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2S2U11high confidenceScience · Foundation to Level 2 · Science Understanding strand

VC2S2U10medium confidenceScience · Foundation to Level 2 · Science Understanding strand

VC2S2U06low confidenceScience · Foundation to Level 2 · Science Understanding strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Forces Vocabularyages 5–8 Testing Push & Pull Designsages 5–6 Contact & Non-Contact Forcesages 7–8 Drawing Force Diagramsages 7–12

All Forces & Motion skills →