Gravity Worksheets

About this resource

Teaching gravity to grades 6-8 and need pages students can actually work on? This is a complete set: seven short readings that build from what gravity is to Newton's law of universal gravitation, each with a main idea box, an example box and two checks to answer with a letter. The readings cover what gravity is, mass vs weight, weight on other worlds, free fall, air resistance and terminal velocity, orbits, and the law of universal gravitation. Students then sort statements as mass or weight, use weight = mass × g on six problems with room to show their work, find nine weights on Earth, the Moon and Mars, fill in a falling-speed table and plot it on a graph, predict what will happen in three situations, answer short questions with room for four lines each, plan and write a claim-evidence-reasoning paragraph, take a twelve-item quiz and do three cut-and-paste sorts. Answer keys give the letters, the worked numbers and a sample for every open answer.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (39 pages)

• 24 student pages in 12 kinds of page, each with a name line and one short instruction
• 84 scored items spread over 18 scored sheets, every answer taken from the same data that prints on the page
• 7 readings of 153 to 191 words, each with a main idea box and an example box (3 ruled lines each) and 2 checks (14 checks in all)
• 1 Before You Read page with 4 true-or-false items
• 1 Words to Know page: match 8 words (gravity, mass, weight, newton, acceleration, free fall, air resistance, orbit) to their meanings
• 1 Mass or Weight? page (8 statements) and 1 Weight Math page (6 problems, a work box and an answer box for each)
• 1 Weight on Three Worlds table (9 weights, using g = 9.8 on Earth, 1.6 on the Moon and 3.7 on Mars, in m/s2)
• 1 Falling Speed Data page: a 5-item table and a graph grid to plot by hand
• 1 Predict and Explain page with 3 situations
• 9 short-answer questions across three pages, 4 ruled lines each
• 2 claim-evidence-reasoning pages: an organizer and an 18-line paragraph page
• 12-item quiz across two pages
• 18 cut-and-paste pieces on 3 sort mats (match the word, mass or weight, put a skydive in order), 6 pieces each in a 3 by 2 grid
• 4 answer keys with a sample for every open answer; 1 tracker, 1 class grid, 1 team note, 1 family page
• 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (17 starters in 6 groups)
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

Built For The Student Holding The Page

A "My name" line, one short instruction with a small picture cue, a plain scalloped border and big ruled boxes. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult: the keys and records are on separate teacher pages. The cut pages have six pieces in a strip-and-grid layout, edge to edge, so there are only a few straight cuts. Clip art is kept to an apple, a globe, a moon, a hammer, a feather, a rocket, a planet, a ball. The file prints clean in black and white.

A Short Account, Not A Full Textbook

Each reading is a plain-words summary of one idea, written for this file. It does not quote any source and it is not tied to a particular standard. Check the numbers against your own textbook. The only student in the file is an invented example, and it says so.

Type In, Or Print

The name line, every answer box, every check box and every ruled work box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The graph is plotted by hand on the printed page. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A set of physical science readings and practice pages with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file, and no claim of alignment to any standard.

If You Want More

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