What Is Energy?

What Is Energy? Worksheet (Grade 6 Science, TEKS 6.8A)

Start your energy unit with a clear answer to a big question: what is energy? This one-page reading and activity sheet explains that energy is the ability to cause change, then compares the two big groups: potential energy, which is stored, and kinetic energy, which is the energy of motion.

What's Inside

• A Big Question box: "What forms can energy take?" and the unit big idea
• Two picture cards comparing potential energy (gravitational, elastic, chemical) with kinetic energy
• Activity 1: Students write P or K for eight everyday examples, such as a stretched rubber band or a rolling soccer ball
• Activity 2: Students circle the word that completes four sentences about energy
• A visual answer key with answers marked in red

How Teachers Use It

Use it on day one of an energy unit, as a bell ringer, or as practice for TEKS 6.8A. The sheet takes about 10 minutes, needs no prior knowledge, and prints clearly in black and white.

This worksheet is part of the Reading in Science series for grade 6. It supports TEKS 6.8A: compare and contrast gravitational, elastic, and chemical potential energies with kinetic energy. It is one of four connected TEKS 6.8A sheets: what energy is, gravitational potential energy, elastic and chemical potential energy, and comparing potential and kinetic energy. The unit big idea is that energy can be stored, transferred, and transformed, but it is not created or destroyed.

Why It Works

Each sheet opens with a Big Question, teaches the key terms in plain words with simple black-and-white doodles, and then asks students to use only what the page taught. The focus is on comparing kinds of energy, not formulas, and the visual answer key lets teachers check work fast.