Gravity and friction are the focus of this Grade 6 Science resource on forces and interactions. Students explore how gravitational attraction depends on mass and distance, how gravity affects falling objects and orbiting bodies, and how friction changes motion between touching surfaces.

Core Science Concepts

The reading passage introduces gravitational attraction between objects with mass and explains why increasing distance weakens the attraction. Students examine Earth's gravity and the Moon's orbit, including how motion and gravitational attraction work together to produce a curved orbital path. The resource also addresses falling objects and clarifies that a heavier object does not automatically fall faster than a lighter object when air resistance is small.

Friction is presented as a different type of force: a contact force that acts between touching surfaces and resists motion. Students apply these ideas to examples such as a sliding book and consider how forces can change an object's motion.

Student Practice

Students work through multiple-choice questions, true-or-false statements, short-answer questions, a labeled diagram, categorization, and short notes. The tasks reinforce relationships between mass, distance, and gravitational attraction while asking students to distinguish gravity from friction and explain the role of forces in falling motion and orbits.

Teacher Support

The resource includes Student Notes lines at the bottom of the worksheet for recording key ideas. The Answer Key PDF includes a Teacher Guide with Learning Objectives, Teaching Tips, Discussion Questions, and Common Mistakes, giving teachers additional support for introducing, reviewing, or assessing the lesson.

Classroom Use

Use this Grade 6 forces and motion worksheet as focused science practice, lesson review, or assessment within a unit on Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions. Students read about the concepts first, then apply them through questions that require factual recall, comparison, explanation, and evidence-based reasoning.

The resource is identified with the NGSS framework and centers on concrete Grade 6 concepts: gravitational attraction, mass, distance, falling objects, orbital motion, air resistance, contact forces, friction, and changes in motion.