Talk about objects

Have a look at some of the objects in a museum in a short video (coming soon).

You’ll need to think about objects linked to your class topic. To start off with you could use a mixture of images and objects.

This toys resource is a great starting place to look at the kind of toys children would have played with in the past.

Borrow a loans box and talk about some of the objects in there. Toys and seaside loans boxes, for example, are available from many museums and are a popular EYFS topic.

These resources for teachers might also help you with pictures of objects

Charity shops can provide a source of unusual and inspiring objects around a variety of themes.

Objects from home can often enhance a class collection and can support individual engagement. .

Story books can embed the importance of objects through a chosen EYFS theme.
Suggested story books include:

• Too Many Toys (Heidi Deedman)

• A House That Once Was (Julie Fogliano)

• Lost in the Toy Museum (David Lucas)

It will be important to make sure all objects are safe to use and well cared for in your own class environment. It may be necessary to have some objects that can be used under supervision only to avoid any upset and damage.

Museums are places that are full of interesting objects that can help tell a story. You could use museum objects to talk about the similarities and differences between the past and the present or even comparing life in this country with life in other countries.

Here are some activities you can do to think about individual objects 

• You could pass a mystery object around in a feely bag. Each child should come up with a word or phrase to describe what they can feel. why not further extended this activity by giving suggested sentence starters for children to complete as part of a class participation activity such as “I wonder”, “I think”  or “What if.”
• Have children think about the oldest object in their house and draw a picture of it with labels explaining what it is and how it might have been used? Have a look at this teddy bear  written by 5 year old Sam.
• Children could think about who used to own a particular object. Can they draw  the object and how it might have looked in the past when it was new?

You could use these activities to start thinking about collections of objects

• You could get children to collect or draw objects based on a theme from around the classroom, for example toys, dinosaurs or even hats.
• Children could sort out a selection of objects or images in different ways. Old and new objects?  Objects made from different materials?  Heavy and light objects? Sharp and smooth objects?
• encourage children to look closer; which objects have been well used? Are there any bumps, dents or bald patches on there, for example?

Caring for objects is a really important job. Why not introduce the term “curator” to the children, and their role in sorting the objects out so they don’t get lost or broken.

Suggested activities

• Why not have someone demonstrate how to carefully handle an object for the class. You could talk about carrying objects with both hands. You could also talk about how to carefully pick up and put objects back down.
• You could introduce different packaging materials, and get children to practice storing objects carefully. Introduce wrapping and unwrapping objects using tissue paper, and placing them safely in boxes.
• Why not have children create a list of objects in the class collection. Use post it notes to label the objects and the boxes.