The magical world of toys is being explored by young children at Chilton Primary in Ramsgate.
To help find out more about their Toymaker topic, the Year 1 group visited The WonderWorks centre in Margate for a hands-on learning experience.
The attraction is inspired by the UK’s best known hobby brands including Hornby, Scalextric, Airfix, Corgi and Pocher, and features a range of scaled models and track layouts for trains and racing cars.
Teacher Poppy Winchcombe said: “During our topic we are learning about different materials and their properties and how that is reflected in toys from the past and how they have changed over time.
“At The WonderWorks we were lucky enough to play with a range of toys, recognise the materials used to make them, watch how they worked and spot some we thought were from the past. We all had the most wonderful and informative time.”
During their classroom Toymaker learning pupils are also comparing toys from the past and today, discussing their grandparents favourite toys and bringing their own in to school for discussion,
They are also using their own ideas to design and create a toy using appropriate materials, components and tools; and they will describe the materials and inherent properties of their toys in writing.
Children will also be challenged to decide upon the best material for making a bath toy. As part of the process, they will be conducting experiments to test for absorbency and buoyancy and will use Venn diagrams to compare and group relevant properties.
Finally they will bring together everything they have learnt about toys past and present in a piece of writing in which they compare similarities and differences between the toys that they play with and those of their grandparents.
Head of School Alex McAuley said: “The visit to The WonderWorks added an extra dimension to the Toymaker learning unit. It is a fascinating centre and it gave our children the opportunity to see a whole range of toys close-up and to study the materials and mechanisms used.
“This is a fascinating topic for this year group and they are really enjoying getting to grips with how toys have changed and how some still remain popular through the decades.”
