Physical Science Resources for 5th Grade
Physical science in fifth grade means matter, energy, forces and motion — the branch of science that is easiest to teach at home, because the equipment is mostly already in your kitchen. Unlike biology, which often needs specimens, or chemistry, which eventually needs real reagents, most fifth-grade physical science can be done with cups, string, magnets, batteries and balloons.
That makes the choice here less about curriculum and more about balance. A textbook alone will get the vocabulary in and leave your student unable to design a test of anything. Experiments alone are fun and can produce a year of activities with no retained framework. Most families do best pairing one structured spine with a good experiment book.
Below are our picks in both categories, then the full collection. Our homeschool science curriculum guide compares full programs.
Our top 5 picks for 5th Grade physical science
Evan-Moor Daily Science, Grade 5
A structured weekly spine covering the year's scope in short daily pieces. Our pick if you want to be sure nothing is missed without teaching from scratch.
Janice VanCleave's 201 Awesome, Magical, Bizarre, & Incredible Experiments
201 experiments using cheap household materials, each with a clear explanation of the underlying principle. The best value hands-on companion to any spine.
Usborne 100 Science Experiments
Heavily illustrated and less text-dense than VanCleave, which suits a fifth grader who is still building reading stamina but wants to build things.
Spectrum Science, Grade 5
Inexpensive written practice covering matter and energy, useful for consolidating vocabulary and for records if your state requires them.
Exploratorium
Hundreds of free hands-on activities from a science museum, each with the science explained properly. Costs nothing and the physics and perception sections are unusually good.
What to expect in 5th Grade physical science
Fifth-grade physical science usually covers properties and states of matter, physical versus chemical change, mixtures and solutions, conservation of matter, forms of energy and energy transfer, forces and motion, simple machines, and basic electricity and magnetism.
This is also the year to teach the process rather than only the content. A fifth grader can genuinely handle a controlled experiment — one variable changed, the rest held constant, results recorded and compared against a prediction. That habit is more valuable than any individual fact on the list above, and it is what makes middle school science straightforward later.
A practical warning: an experiment that "fails" is not a wasted afternoon. Working out why the result differed from the prediction is the actual science, and modelling that response teaches more than a demonstration that goes perfectly.
