Exploring Toys

Exploring Toys is a hands-on experience for students to work as designers and collaborators as they create their own exhibition with toys from the collection.

Program overview

Imagine working in a museum! We ask students to bring their ideas, teamwork and toy expertise to work with real museum collections and create their very own exhibition. This hands-on experience will see your students as problem-solvers, designers, collaborators and critical thinkers. Students classify and investigate toys by observing and describing their physical properties.

In small teams, students will:

• engage in teamwork through role play to investigate museum practices
• compare different observable properties such as materials, age, colour, texture, flexibility
• use real museum objects to develop a (mini) museum exhibition
• present and describe their exhibition to the group.

Exploring Toys complements the Science and HASS learning areas of the Australian Curriculum.

Download the Teacher Guide and Curriculum links

Learning outcomes

Students will: 

• recognise concepts of past and present
• share knowledge about personal and family histories to investigate the past
• observe and interpret objects to draw conclusions or devise an inquiry about materials, history, technology or energy transfer, etc.
• identify different materials, processes and technologies used for constructing, manufacturing and operating toys
• celebrate museum collections and the role of the museum in documenting change.

Available program dates

Term 2: 
7 - 9 May 2025 - Sold out
14 - 16 May 2025 - Sold out

Term 3: 
23 - 25 July 2025 - Sold out
30 July - 1 August 2025

Term 4:
15 – 17 October 2025
22 – 24 October 2025 - Sold out