Design A Toy

Designing toys can be a really valuable activity for children to explore. There are lots of different learning opportunities that could form part of a larger project about designing toys:

• Look at your favourite toys. What are they made from? How are the different parts joined together? How are they used? Can you use any of these ideas in your own toy design?
• Think about the types of toys that children of different ages play with. How might a toy for a baby differ from a toy for a seven-year-old?
• Think about the toys that girls and boys might play with. Do toys have to be especially for boys or girls, or can they be used by both?
• Choose a target audience for your toy and think about what they might like to play with.
• Create a number of designs and ask children in the target audience for their opinions. Could you create a survey to find out their opinions?
• Choose one of the designs and make a prototype to see how the toy might work. Does your original design need to be altered / improved?
• Make a final version of your toy and ask other people for their opinions of it.
• Think about the cost of your toy. How much do the materials cost? How much might it cost to make? How much will you charge so that you can make a profit on each toy?
• Think about the instructions that will need to be included with your toy.
• Make some packaging for your toy so that it catches children’s attention when they are in a toy shop.
• Create some advertising (e.g. posters, radio adverts, video adverts or a website) to promote the toy to others.

Do you have any other ideas? Leave a comment below…