History: History of Toys

How have toys changed?

Concepts: Changes within living memory.

Vocabulary

Then and Now

Modern

Future

Technology

Past

Present

Old

New

Similarities

Differences

Chronological order

Progressive Skills

Chronological Understanding

Place known events in the order of when they happened.
Sequence events and recount changes in living memory (chronological understanding).
Use common words and phrases relating to the passing of time.
Match objects to people of different ages

Range & Depth of Historical Knowledge

Understand key features of events.
Identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.

Interpretations of History

Use stories to encourage children to distinguish between fact and fiction
Compare adults talking about the past – how reliable are their memories?

Historical Enquiry

Find answers to some simple questions about the past from simple sources of information.
Describe some simple similarities and differences between man-made objects.
Sort historical objects from 'then' and 'now'.
Ask and answer relevant basic questions about the past.
Relate his/her own account of an event and understand that others may give a different version.

Organisation & Communication

Talk, draw or write about aspects of the past.

Progressive Content

What is the difference between old and new toys? We will start our topic by reminding ourselves the difference between now and the past, going on to explore how toys were different in the past. We will explore a range of old, wooden toys and compare them to plastic, battery operated toys that we may be more familiar with today. We will use the sentence stems: ‘Toys now are …’, ‘Toys in the past were…’ and ‘Something that makes old toys different is that …’ to compare.

What is the present? This lesson will start with a recap of timelines, drawing on our knowledge from the previous unit and introducing the idea that the ‘now’ is also referred to as the ‘present’. We will then place toys explored in our last lesson on a timeline to show how they have changed in chronological order and discuss our favourite present day toys. We will use the sentence stems: ‘The … was made first’, ‘My favourite toy in the present is …’ and ‘My favourite toy in the past was …’.

What toys did our parents play with? Using photographs sent in from relatives, the children will explore what toys were like for their parents and grandparents growing up. We will come up with questions to ask using our 5W question words.

How do museums help historians? Visit to Maidstone Museum

What do we know about toys in the past? The children will each choose a toy from the trip to the Museum to draw accompanied by a very simple user manual for it describing what it is, what it’s made of and how it works.

How will toys be different in the future? In this final lesson, we will talk about how materials and designs of toys have changed, referring to our original timeline and will then come up with ideas for how toys in the future may look. We will talk about the future referring to something that has yet to happen and will use the sentence stems: ‘In the future toys will be able to …’, ‘In the future I will play with…’ and ‘In the future, toys will be made of…’.

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