Teaching Physics for the First Time
Physics landed on your schedule. Here is the whole year, already built.
Eight units of lessons, warm-ups, assignments, classroom activities, assessments, teacher answer keys, and a pacing guide. Built by a physics and engineering teacher with a decade in the classroom, for the teacher who has never taught it before.
Instant download. 30-day guarantee. School purchase orders welcome.
You are not behind. You are just building 180 days from scratch.
Maybe this is your first year. Maybe you are credentialed in chemistry or biology and the physics section is new. Maybe you have taught for fifteen years and physics simply never came up. Nearly every teacher who has reviewed this curriculum was in one of those three spots.
The hard part is not the content. It is that you are writing slides at 10pm, hunting for a forces worksheet on a Sunday, and building a unit test the night before you give it, while carrying two other preps.
How the year runs, from the pacing guide
Every unit follows the same rhythm, so once you have taught one you know how to teach all eight: a warm-up to open class, a numbered lesson slide deck, a matching assignment with a full answer key, a quiz partway through, a hands-on activity, a crossword review, and the unit test. The pacing guide lays it out day by day.
| Unit | Days | Lessons |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Motion | 12 | Intro to motion, graphing motion, acceleration, gravitational acceleration. Activity: motion scavenger hunt. |
| 2 Forces | 20 | Intro to forces, net force and free-body diagrams, Newton's first, second, and third laws, circular motion. Activity: developing a law of acceleration. |
| 3 Momentum | 15 | Momentum, impulse in two parts, conservation of momentum, collisions and explosions. Activity: conservation of momentum exploration. |
| 4 Gravity | 15 | Intro to gravity, universal gravitation, orbital motion, gravitational field strength, Kepler's laws, Einstein's gravity. Activity: planetary scale model. |
| 5 Electrostatics | 12 | Intro to electrostatics, methods of charging, electrostatic force, electric fields. Activity: investigating induced polarization. |
| 6 Energy | 17 | Work and energy, potential energy, kinetic and thermal energy, conservation of energy, the velocity equation, the ballistic pendulum. Activity: conservation of energy exploration. |
| 7 Circuits | 19 | Current and resistance, voltage, Ohm's law, schematic diagrams, series, parallel, and combination circuits, electrical power. Activity: circuit construction. |
| 8 Waves | 14 | Waves intro, wave velocity, wave interactions, interference, wave phenomena, the electromagnetic spectrum. Activity: waves exploration. |
124 teaching days in the guide, which leaves room in a 180-day year for the escape rooms, labs, and your own pacing. Algebra-based, no trigonometry, no calculus. The signature skill is proportional reasoning, which is exactly where students new to physics need practice.
What the teachers who bought it say
"For teachers who are nervous about teaching physics for their first time, Phantastic Physics does a great job of explaining these concepts in plain language that any teacher can easily convey to a group of 9-12 grade students."
Philip D., first-year physics teacher, verified TPT purchase
"Although $400+ is a lot for a teacher to spend, I am really glad that I made this purchase. There are so many lecture slides, assignments, tests, quizzes, warm up exercises, activities, and answer keys for everything. 10/10 would highly recommend."
Jim B., first-year physics teacher, verified TPT purchase
"I am credentialed to teach both chemistry and physics, but I am definitely much stronger on the chemistry side. Whoever wrote this curriculum really knows how to simplify complex concepts in layman's terms. Great buy."
Thomas L., verified TPT purchase
"Everything in this bundle has a detailed answer key, with clear explanations for every problem. The author seems to put effort into making the keys detailed enough, and in simple enough language, that new physics teachers can use them to explain concepts to their students."
Janice C., verified TPT purchase
Choose your year
Each bundle includes the same CORE curriculum. Choose the additional collections that fit your classroom.
CORE Bundle
The full-year curriculum: lessons, warm-ups, assignments, classroom activities, assessments, and answer keys.
Choose CORE when you need the curriculum without the separate escape-room and 22-lab collections.
PLUS Bundle
- All 8 units: slides, assignments, warm-ups, quizzes, tests, answer keys
- All 8 escape rooms, one review day per unit
- Day-by-day pacing guide for the full year
MEGA Bundle
- Everything in PLUS
- All 22 labs with setup notes and answer keys
- The same CORE curriculum plus both supplementary collections
View each product page for current prices and sample pages. A 30-day digital-product guarantee applies; school purchase orders are welcome. Want one unit first? Start with Motion.
Questions first-year teachers ask
Is it editable?
Formats vary by resource. The curriculum includes lesson slides and printable student materials; the separate escape-room collection is supplied as print-ready PDFs, not editable files. Review the product contents and sample pages before purchase. Adjust pacing to your class schedule.
What if my students are weak in math?
The curriculum is algebra-based and leans on proportional reasoning. Scientific notation first appears in Unit 4. The only conversions used are grams to kilograms and minutes to seconds.
Can my school pay by purchase order?
Yes. Reply to any email or use the purchase order page and we will send what your bookkeeper needs.
What if it is not right for my class?
Our digital-product policy offers a full refund within 30 days of purchase. Email your order number and a brief note about what did not fit; see the refund policy for details.
Not ready to buy the year? Run one day free.
The complete Circuits escape room, Case 7, is free. Print it tonight, run it tomorrow, and see how the materials work with your students.