Optional question: What toys did our grandparents get as Christmas presents when they were your age?
Learning objectives
- Children are able to describe at least two differences between toys from 60 years ago and today
- Children learn that the past is differentiated and can talk about old toys belonging to parents and grandparents at different times in the past
- They learn to use different forms of evidence e.g. asking elderly relatives, and looking at objects and photographs to build up a picture of the past
Step 1
Start with a discussion about how we can begin to investigate what toys were like say 60 years ago: photographs, memories of people themselves, actual objects, museums, pictures/paintings. Slide 2 of the PowerPoint below gives clues which can be revealed if pupils are reticent.
Step 2
Explain that we are going to start by using a fictitious character, such as Grandad Bill. Think about using a puppet Grandad. Create Bill’s old battered suitcase in which were stored his favourite toys – his treasured possessions, now aged with time, which he introduces, as a puppet. You will have to provide these toys from the 1960s yourself. Children respond well to a person and
