Bring themuseum intoyour classroom

Young curators

Toys

Classroom museumCurate a classroom museum. What information will be on the labels? How will you organise your museum? Invite parents and carers or another class to visit your museum and give them a guided tour.

Museum collageUse magazines, catalogues etc to create a museum collage – what objects will you choose? How will you display them? What will your galleries look like?

Virtual museumOlder children could create a virtual gallery using Pinterest or a similaronline organiser.

Museum posterUse PicCollage to create and annotate a poster for your museum.

Toys of the futureYour students saw toys from the past and present on their visit. Can they design a toy from the future? What will it be made of? How will children play with it?

Patrick RylandsIntroduce Patrick Rylands and his bold, colourful designs to your students. Give students simple shapes to transforminto toys.

Toy pollCreate a survey to discover people’s favourite toys. How will you show the results of your survey?

PuppetsFractured fairy talesCan your students work in groups to write and perform a fractured fairy tale puppet show? Challenge them to create their own theatre and puppets – shadow puppets, sock puppets, glove puppets, glove puppets etc.

Shadow puppets The Shadow Puppet shows are based on traditional stories from Indonesia. Can your students research other traditional stories and create the puppets to tell the stories?

Explore how light is cast from different sources. Hang a white sheet in the classroom so the pupils can try moving like puppets behind it. How does moving the light affect the shadows?

Lost in the Toy Museum Read (or reread!) Lost in the Toy Museum by David Lucas. Can your pupils write and perform a puppet show based on the story – or even one about the toys in your classroom?

Extend your students’ museum learning! Back at school easily mix, match and differentiate these activities to make the most of your museum experience.

Find our collections onlinevam.ac.uk/moc/collectionsEasy to download information and images remind your students of what they saw!

KS1 & 2

V&A Museum of ChildhoodLearning resources for schools

Find out morevam.ac.uk/moc/learning/schools

Place (Village)dolls houses

Robots andmoving toys

Games

Marvellous magnetsDesign and make a simple magnetic game or toy: magnets and magnetic print friendly card can be bought cheaply online.

Design a robotRobots: ask your students to research the different tasks robots do in industry today. Can they design and prototype a robot to do a particular job?

Recycled toysTake inspiration from the home-made toys you saw in the galleries! Design and make your own moving toy from recycled materials. If your school has Raspberry Pi or Micro:bit equipment, can you programme the toy to carry out simple tasks?

Elastic fantasticExplore how elastic bands can be used to power a moving toy – can your pupils make a powerboat from recycled materials? How far can it travel? Can you create a test for your boats?

Science fictionMany of the ‘robots’ in the museum were inspired by space exploration and science fiction. Can your pupils write their own sci-fi story about robots?

Try making your own pinwheel/windmill or pop-up puppet using recycled materials.

Mechanisms

Make your gameCreate a new board game inspired by those you saw in the museum.

Monopoly localAsk students to rework the classic game and create a version based on yourlocal area.

Game togetherRole-playing game books such as the Choose your own adventure or Fighting Fantasy books were popular in the 1980s. Students can work together to create their own collaborative adventure in this style – either use dice for a random outcome or create right/wrong outcomes.

The mysterious villagePlace (Village) has an air of mystery about it. Create a piece of group writing about the village: what happened to the people? Why has it been abandoned? You might like to start this activity in the museum by asking your class to make a mind-map or a word list while looking at the exhibit.

Illustrate the storyCollage a display board with dolls’ house images as a way to share the story. Try using fabric scraps to create a class wall hanging – either sew or glue the fabric houses onto a backing sheet. The V&A has some beautiful backdrops from theatre performances to use as inspiration, such as this one from The Firebird. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O129761/backcloth-natalia-goncharova/

Who lives here?Build a dolls’ house from recycled materials and furnish the rooms. Shoe boxes can be easily repurposed as rooms or to make a tower block. Use your dolls’ house or tower block as inspiration for literacy lessons – stories about the people who live in the buildings, a community newsletter etc.

Rachel WhitereadFind out more about Rachel Whiteread and her artworks. What places or objects do students find strange? Experiment with rubbings, impression making or casting.

Write a review

What did your students like or dislike about their visit? What could we do better? Who will read the review? What tone of voice will be needed?

Critical writing