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HistoryYears 7, 8About 4 sessions (estimate, no timer)A parent checks the finished piece
The Victorian Toy Lab
Your imaginary toy shop needs an optical toy that actually works — and an honest answer to who had time to play.
What you'll make
A working card thaumatrope, a test log, a toy-shop advert and a 'Who had time to play?' comparison.
What you'll learn
- Where the Victorian period sits in time (1837–1901)
- How childhood differed for rich and poor Victorian children
- One change to children's work or schooling
- The difference between a period object and a modern reconstruction
You'll need
Thin card (a cereal box works) · Coloured pencils · Two short strings or elastic bands · An adult to make the holes · No-spin option: just paper
Curriculum links
- Understand ideas, political power, industry and empire in Britain 1745-1901, including the Industrial Revolution and its impact on society
- Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance
- Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources, and how and why historians have interpreted the past in different ways
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