A lever toy

Ages 3 to 5 Read and do together · about 20 minutes

Read together

A lever is a stick that turns on a point. Press one end down, and the other end goes up.

A seesaw is a lever.

Do it

1. Lay a ruler or a flat stick across a pencil or a roll of tape.
2. Put a light toy on one end. Press the other end down with a finger.
3. Watch the toy fly up a little. Try moving the pencil closer to the toy.
4. Visit a seesaw and notice how it moves.

Talk about it

• What happens when you press down?
• What changes when the pencil moves?

For the grown-up

A lever turns on a fulcrum, the point it rests on. Move the fulcrum and the lever works differently. Use only very light toys, and keep eyes away from the launched toy.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• NGSS Lead States, Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States (National Academies Press, 2013), performance expectation K-PS2-1 (pushes and pulls)
• NASA, Glenn Research Center, Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics, pages on simple machines

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.