This 3-page 3rd grade friction sheet starts with twelve picture cards, from sandpaper and tree bark to ice and a metal slide. Students write each surface in a Rough: more friction column or a Smooth: less friction column. Page 2 adds three written questions about a toy car on carpet, wood and sandpaper, and about sand on icy sidewalks. Page 3 gives the sorted chart, six surfaces in each column, and a written answer for each question.
“Sort surfaces by how much friction they cause.”
Question 1 asks students to place all twelve pictured surfaces under more friction or less friction.
“Explain how the surface under a moving object changes how far it travels.”
Questions 2 and 3 link a surface to how far a toy car rolls, and question 4 applies the same idea to sand on ice.
Twelve labeled pictures: sandpaper, carpet, grass, gravel road, rubber mat, tree bark, ice, glass, polished wood floor, metal slide, plastic tray and frozen pond. Students write each one on a line in a two-column chart.
Three boxed questions. Students choose the surface where a toy car would roll farthest from carpet, wood and sandpaper, explain why, and then say why people put sand on icy sidewalks in winter.
The completed chart and written answers for questions 2 to 4.
Before the toy cars come out
Hand it out ahead of a ramp lesson. Students who put carpet and grass in the rough column usually predict the car result correctly without being told.
Argue the borderline cards
Tree bark and the rubber mat split opinion. Let pairs defend their column and point to the picture before you show page 3.
Exit ticket
Use question 4 on its own at the end of a lesson. Listen for students who say the sand adds friction, rather than only saying it melts the ice.
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