Activity
- Provide your group with a selection of images of different animals, insects, plants, vehicles, machinery or household objects. You can find these in nature and hobby magazines or online.
- Ask your pupils to mix and match different parts of things together that don’t usually match. They might end up with a new animal, machine or object, depending on their choices. E.g. Adding butterfly wings to a car, a giraffe neck to a snail, or spider legs to a washing machine.
- Encourage pupils to think about the different qualities of the things they are choosing to put together – what will their new creations be able to do? They could give them names and think about how they move, communicate and eat, or consider where they might live or work.
Reflection
- What qualities do different things in nature have e.g. how they move or live?
- What qualities do we want the things we design and build in our world to have?
Go Further
Introduce the wordless book Windows by Jeannie Baker and explore how the view outside our windows changes over time. Use time-lapse photography through a window to explore how the environment changes and our impact.
Inquisitive: Challenging assumptions
Children are playfully curious, using existing images and ideas to create new perspectives issues or global problem solving.
