Your forces list and the course, side by side
Olivia's 40-step forces sequence, checked line by line against the built Grade 3–5
course on 23 October 2026. Each match below names the lesson that teaches it, confirmed from the
course build itself. Prepared for Olivia; copied to David and James.
The short version
- Everything on your list is taught. You list 30 teaching steps (plus 10 vocabulary
videos). The course teaches 23 of the 30 in full and 7 in part. None is missing.
- Your worksheet already changed the course. On 20 October your "Which Force?" worksheet
became a set of questions in the end-of-topic tests — in Grade 3 Topic 10, Grade 4 Topics 1
and 3, and four Grade 5 topics. Grade 5 also teaches that sort as a lesson of its own.
- Your order and the course's order are the same story. Grade 3 opens the way you set it
in September: Earth's pull first, then magnets, and only then the word "force", named on both
of those plus the hand's push. The map below joins each of your steps to its lesson.
- Your ten vocabulary videos are a packaging choice, not missing content. The course
teaches each word inside the lesson that first needs it. One decision from James would settle
which way all the courses do it.
- One naming point needs settling: "applied force". The course says "a contact force",
and there is a reason — it's under "Two wordings to look at" below.
Your 40 steps, mapped to the course's lessons
Your steps on the left, the course's 53 forces lessons on the right, in the
order the course teaches them (Grade 3 → Grade 4 → Grade 5). A green line means the lesson
teaches your step in full; amber means in part. Grey steps are your vocabulary videos — no line,
because the course teaches those words inside the lessons.
Your list, step by step
| # | Your step | Taught? | Which lesson | Note |
|---|
The course's forces lessons, and where each appears in your list
One row per lesson, in teaching order. Green = on your list. Red = not on your
list — mostly the push-and-pull effects block (the Grade 3 state test asks about it), the
investigations, and Grade 5's content.
Which list is more finely split?
On the ground you both cover, nearly one step to one lesson. The totals differ because the
scopes differ.
| Area | Your steps | Course lessons | Who goes finer |
|---|
| Gravity | 2 | 6 | The course — the pull can be beaten, the direction, naming gravity |
| Magnets | 4 | 9 | The course — poles, distance, the steel rule, the model |
| Naming "force" and the kinds of force | 4 | 5 | Even |
| Arrows | 3 | 3 | Even — you add "which force is this arrow showing" |
| Touching and not touching | 2 | 3 | Even |
| Friction | 9 | 5 | You — you add the why and the slippery drill |
| Several forces, balanced and unbalanced | 4 | 8 | The course — your list stops just before this block |
| What a push or pull does (start, stop, turn, squash) | 0 | 4 | Course only — the Grade 3 state test asks about it |
| Grade 5 (unequal forces, static electricity, investigations) | 0 | 10 | Course only |
| Vocabulary | 10 videos | taught in-lesson | You — as standalone videos |
| Total | 30 (+10 vocab) | 53 | |
|---|
Four things from your list the course should take
- CAN touch against HAS to touch (your step 18). A magnet can touch; it does not have to.
That contrast pair belongs in the touching lesson's examples.
- The "slippery means LESS friction" drill (your step 27). The backwards wording is a
real trap. The course tests which surface slides farther; it never drills the backwards sentence.
A short practice run in Grade 4 closes it.
- "Which force is this arrow showing?" (your step 13). The course draws arrows, and it
names forces — it never asks the two together. One new question type closes it.
- A decision on vocabulary. Your standalone vocab videos, or the course's
word-inside-the-lesson. Either works. The courses should do one thing, and that call is James's.
Two wordings to look at
- "Applied force" (your steps 7, 37, 38). The course deliberately says "a contact force"
instead, and here is the reasoning. Every force is applied — one object applies it to another.
Gravity is applied by the Earth. The magnetic force is applied by the magnet. So the name
"applied force" does not pick anything out. "Contact force" does: it says this force only happens
while the two objects touch. James ruled this on 8 October, so the student word across the
courses is "a contact force". Your steps 37–38 also use "applied force" for the table's push on
the book — that one is a different force again (middle school names it the support force). The
fact itself is already taught: Grade 3 Topic 9, lesson 2 — "Earth pulls the book down. So why
doesn't the book fall? Because the table pushes the book up." — and Grade 5 says it again. Keep
your chair example; it just doesn't need the label.
- "Friction always points opposite to motion" (your step 33) breaks on your own examples.
Grip on the monkey bars is friction stopping a slide that never happens. When you walk, friction
on your shoe points forwards. The safe wording is already in the Grade 4 lesson: "friction always
acts against the direction you are trying to push."
- Small one: your step 5 drops the word "some" ("magnets can pull metal objects"). Your
step 3 has it right — only some metals. Grade 4 pins it: a magnet always pulls steel.
- The vocabulary videos grow with the examples you pick. "Asphalt" needs a video only
because step 31's example is asphalt. Sandpaper or a brick needs no video. Picking examples from
words the children already own removes most of the vocabulary load.
Changes your list asks of the course — for James
Your edits to the gravity lessons — drop "without touching" from step 1, and
drop "the Earth is always pulling" — would change two existing lessons that are there on purpose.
That is James's call, and it is now on his list. Also his: when to name "friction" (Grade 3
currently says "the drag back"), and one line of guidance on "a contact force" doing two jobs —
it names the touching kind of force, and it is also the test answer for a person's push.