How our students benefited from taking this approach: Our students took ownership of the project and were highly motivated by it. It was their work and they made decisions about how to display it. They took a lead in explaining what they had done to the children from other classes who came to visit. It boosted their confidence and made them feel proud of their achievements.
How I used the toolkit: We started planning with the toolkit. Both Year 1 teachers and the History Coordinator looked at what was available. We looked at how other people had set up their exhibition to get ideas and we printed out the resources including the factual information for teachers which helped us feel confident that our own knowledge was secure. Both teachers used the toolkit to plan their classroom activities and used the downloadable templates for exhibition leaflets, labels and invitations (although we added some guide lines for our young writers!).We loved using the toolkit and making the exhibitions and would like to be able to do this every year.
We used the poster and label templates from the toolkit to display in our museum. There are also great ideas for games or activities to hook the children into learning about the topic.
Top tips for other teachers:
“Allow plenty of time”
We did this over two weeks but it could actually be done better over a longer period of time. Don’t over plan it. Leave room in the timetable for the children to develop their own ideas and to take control of their own learning.
“Invite the older children to come and see the exhibition”
The Year 3 children were looking around and talking about their visit to the Museum and the topic work they did about Captain Cook two years earlier and Year 1s loved explaining to Year 5s!
