you need a plastic cup (the see through ones work best). take the cup and place a playing card on top. on top of the playing card, place a penny in the middle.

flick the card so it shoots horizontally off of the cup. the penny should fall into the cup.

(please flick the card away from any students)…the flicking part does take a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, your penny should fall right in.

after i did the activity i taught them the word inertia in very basic terms.

other activities that is good for that age is sink or float. this will help you teach mass and density. you can use classroom objects that are similar in size and then discuss why some float and others sink.

an activity i’ve done with 5th graders (and it could be done younger) was take two plastic pitchers and filled them with the same amount of water (leaving a few inches at the top). place a diet pepsi in one and a regular pepsi in the other. the diet pepsi will float and the regular pepsi will sink.