What are toys made from?

These fun, exciting materials and their properties KS1 lessons explore what are toys made from. These lessons will have your Year 1 class identifying, classifying and describing the materials used to make a variety of toys. During these six lessons your children will explore materials, such as wood, plastic, metal, fabric and glass, through a variety of engaging and enjoyable activities that will help them discover all they need to know about what toys are made from.

A Knowledge Organiser is available to support the learning in this scheme. It is included in the Complete Series download or can be purchased individually.

You may also like our Toys Topic Bundle with four ready-to-teach Toys-themed schemes of work for History, Science, DT and RE. This Materials Year 1 Science Pack includes six downloadable lessons. Each lesson contains a detailed lesson plan, a slideshow presentation and printable teaching resources.

Identifying Materials

The first lesson in this practical series encourages your class to identify a variety of toys and think about the materials they are made from. During a hands-on, practical activity your class will observe, sort, name and describe toys, while beginning to think about their purpose.

This downloadable lesson comes with a lesson plan, a slideshow presentation and printable teaching resources.

View Lesson 1

Exploring Wooden Toys

During this lesson on wooden toys your class will develop their ability to think scientifically when asking and answering questions and to use the appropriate language to describe them. The children will apply their knowledge to find and describe other wooden items around the classroom and sort material label cards on classroom items.

This downloadable lesson comes with a lesson plan, a slideshow presentation and printable teaching resources.

View Lesson 2

Exploring Plastic Toys

Explore plastic and the many different forms and purposes it has with your class. Your class will begin by identifying and describing some common toys that have different properties. They will be encouraged to think carefully about why a product’s purpose affects the properties the material needs. Your class will then have the opportunity to sort and describe a variety of the same toys that are made from different materials. Alternatively the children will sort different plastics into categories and see if their peers can use their observation skills to work out what categories the objects have been sorted into.

This downloadable lesson comes with a lesson plan, a slideshow presentation and printable teaching resources.

View Lesson 3

Exploring Wooden Toys

During this lesson on wooden toys your class will develop their ability to think scientifically when asking and answering questions and to use the appropriate language to describe them. The children will apply their knowledge to find and describe other wooden items around the classroom and sort material label cards on classroom items.

This downloadable lesson comes with a lesson plan, a slideshow presentation and printable teaching resources.

View Lesson 4

Exploring Fabric Toys

This lesson encourages your class to think about why some materials are more suited to certain purposes than others. They will explore toys that are made from different fabrics and why fabric is a good choice over other materials for certain toys. Your class will help some confused people work out which materials they should use for a variety of tasks, based on what they know about materials, as well as choosing the best material for a variety of objects.

This downloadable lesson comes with a lesson plan, a slideshow presentation and printable teaching resources.

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What have we learnt?

The final lesson in this series gives your class the chance to recap what they have learnt about materials and consolidate their knowledge through some exciting open-ended activities. The lesson begins by asking the children to think about and answer questions on the materials they have looked at during this series of lessons. During the activity part of the lesson your class will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge of materials when identifying the toy being described. This lesson ends with an end of unit quiz.

This downloadable lesson comes with a lesson plan, a slideshow presentation and printable teaching resources.

View Lesson 6

This Year 1 Science Knowledge Organiser has been created to complement this scheme of work. It is designed to support your children’s understanding of key topical and scientific vocabulary linked to this scheme of work. Enquiry questions have been included to encourage your children to develop their 'working scientifically' skills within this topic.

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