3 Engaging Activities for Potential and Kinetic Energy For Kids

Teaching about kinetic and potential energy to students in 4th-grade science can be quite a challenge. With the complex concepts, the students respond best with fun and engaging potential and kinetic energy activities for kids. In this post, I will share 4 activities that any 4th-grade teacher can do to excite her students and make learning accessible for all the students.

#1 Potential and Kinetic Boom Cards

This boom deck for 4th-grade energy has all of the fun digital task cards you can use with your students to grow their understanding of the complex concepts for energy. Boom Learning set up a system that allows your students to flip through a slide deck of questions. Each page has a question, and the students can either drag and drop the answers, type inside text boxes, complete a matching activity, or click the correct answer.

Students think it’s a game because of its instant access to the correct answer. It works much like fun app kids can play on their phones. To read more about how to get started on Boom Learning, click here.

In this Potential and Kinetic Boom Cards activity, students view an image and they are to choose it is portraying kinetic or potential energy. Some of the examples that are shown are the following:

a kid sitting on the bottom of a slide
a bow stretched back
swinging downward
a car driving

#2 Angry Birds Outdoor Activity

When students are just learning about kinetic and potential energy, they learn the physical movements for Total Physical Response (TPR). They know that potential energy is stored energy that can move against gravity. They also know that kinetic energy is energy in motion. Ultimately, I want my students to know that energy transfers into another form, so potential energy can transform into kinetic energy.

One way I show my students a visual representation of that is by showing them the Angry game app. In the game, there is a slingshot with a bird in the slingshot. I move the slingshot back and show them that when the slingshot with the bird is going back, it has mostly potential energy. The energy is stored.

When the slingshot releases, then the energy transforms into kinetic energy. The kids see a clear distinction between each energy type and see the transformation of energy as well.

We take this one step further and reenact it outdoors. To reenact it you will need 10 red cups, 2-3 soft items such as balls, and an exercise band. You will need this for each group you have. My students are split up into 3-4 students per group. I teach that each person has a role as they reenact the Angry Birds.

fun potential and kinetic energy activity for kids

Practicing aim practice while transferring energy from potential to kinetic

Set up the red cups in a pyramid formation and take 5-6 steps away from the formation. One of your students will be standing behind the formation to manage the cups that fall down. Five to six steps away you have the other three students. Two of those students will stretch out the exercise band, and the third student will have the soft item in the exercise band stretching it back.

When the students are in this step, all of the students will be chanting, “potential, potential, potential.” When the one student with the fluffy ball releases the ball, they will chant “kinetic, kinetic, kinetic.”

A fun way to document this would be for the students to create Flipgrid videos during distance learning. They can share with their peers how they managed this activity with the items they had at home. If you need a tutorial on how to get started with Flipgrid, I made one just for you. Click here.

#3 Pendulum Science Activity

For this activity, you will need one pendulum for the entire class or one per group. You can purchase them here on amazon or have students create pendulums. Here are some ideas to use from Pinterest. (set up Pinterest pendulum board.

Once the students have either created or you have purchased the pendulums, you can introduce to the students that they will be using the pendulum to learn all about potential and kinetic energy. Ask for some input from your students. Does anyone have any ideas on how they will be learning about energy using a pendulum? You can even ask what a pendulum does or what they think it is created for.

If you don’t have access to disbursing materials to your students to build pendulums, you can purchase this simple one from Amazon.

Then you will have your students get to practice moving the ball from one side and dropping it. They can observe the behavior.

real life examples of potential and kinetic energy

In the next step, you will have students try to think about speed and potential energy. Students will be looking at the distance at which they drop the ball from, and how that affects the speed or behavior of the pendulum. At this point, they know that the higher an object is, the more potential energy it will have. In this activity, they will get to see it in action.

The goal is to get the students to sketch the pendulum at four different parts. They will have to share with their groups what they think they will observe. How many times will their pendulums swing back and forth in 30 seconds?

Once they test out the pendulums at different potential levels, they will write or record the results. This is one of their absolute favorite activities, and when you add a student

3 Engaging Activities for Potential and Kinetic Energy For Kids

Bring Energy to Life

The kids are going to love learning about potential and kinetic energy with these fun activities! Pick one of them and see the learning transform in front of your eyes. Your students will love learning science and stem and keep asking for more.

free potential and kinetic energy digital worksheets

Transfer of energy

Examples of Transfer of Energy

If you are looking for a FREE digital activity for potential and kinetic energy, you can start by signing up to download a free Google Slides digital version of potential and kinetic energy worksheets. Included will be a reading comprehension page along with fun digital worksheet activities.

This Freebie is on me!

Looking to embed ELA with science (or vice versa)? Get these writing prompts that will get your students thinking about what they’re learning in science class as they practice their writing skills!