As part of our topic learning, the children have been learning about the evolution of toys. We have focused on 3 centuries from the 19th century through to present day. We used a simple timeline to identify which elements of this time were ‘within living memory’ and ‘beyond living memory.’
We learnt that in the 19th century, lots of toys were made of wood, metal, fabric or glass. By the middle of the 20th century, plastic had been invented and so many toys started to be made of plastic – Lego, plastic dolls etc.
In the 21st century, many new toys are electronic. Examples include tablets, consoles, moving toys etc.
Mrs Wright brought in lots of toys for us to explore. Some of these were fairly new and some of them were quite old. We loved looking at the Nintendo Game boy and the teddy bear from 1902!
We worked as a class to sort the toys onto the timeline, thinking carefully about the materials that they were made from. We then worked in small groups to apply our knowledge to our own timelines. The children had some fantastic ideas and used their knowledge of materials and how toys have changed to sort the toys accurately. Great historical thinking Skylarks!
