Game Zone Autumn 2023
Game Zone
Rationale: In response to a letter from the Game Zone Toy Company, 3/4 will explore ways to create a new range of magnetic games. They will write formal letters to the Toy Company accepting the challenge. Also, throughout the project, the children will expand their knowledge of forces and magnets to research the best materials for their games. To create the “perfect” magnetic game the children will research existing games and conduct surveys. When planning their design, they will have to take into consideration the durability and appearance of the game. The success of the game will also depend on the quality of the written instructions which accompany it. The Chairman of the toy company will choose the three best games and another class will get an opportunity to play them all at a Games Convention.
Game Zone Home Learning 2023-2024
Today, the Orchard Toy Company sent us a challenge: they are making a new type of pull a long car toy, could we investigate if the weight of an object has an impact on the force needed to pull it along? In order to do this, we had to make our own force (Newton) meters!
In English we have been exploring the book Until I Met Dudley which has some whacky explanations. We used what we had learnt about the features of explanations to create our own group versions! We had to use our thinking, creativity AND interdependence!
Toady we have been sent a request to design and make our own magnetic games and packaging! Today we created a design brief for the games (they must be appealing, attractive, a theme that is interesting and practical!) then started to design the concept for our game.
In order to make magnetic games, we must first brush up our knowledge of magnetism - today we tested whether bigger magnets are stronger than smaller magnets!
Our games will need boxes..... so we evaluated existing boxes based on the purpose of a box, the practicality, quality and appearance...
Do poles attract? Do magnets work in water? We planned and carried out our own fair tests to investigate. Then we will be ready to make our games!
Joining... when we made our nets into boxes we found joining the edges very tricky - we learnt how to join using tabs, different materials and flanges
We then decided that our paper boxes were very flimsy and not fit for purpose - they wouldn't protect anything or keep things together. We discussed using different materials and even then how to make them stronger. We explored laminating (creating multiple layers) and corrugating to stregthen. I wonder if we will use any of the these techniques in our designs?
To make a box, we must first learn how boxes are made. We explored different boxes and Mrs Hagan took a box apart to show us how it is made up of different 2D shapes. From this, we investigated nets and the different shapes that you can use to make different shaped nets.
Making our magnetic games! We started the day in deep discussion: we had a range of tools and materials to choose from to make our games. We followed our designs, evaluating and modifying along the way as we hit snags, or found better ways of doing things. This process was a way to apply our learning about magnetism and practice our Design, Make, Evaluate process for our boxes!
Today we made the final design for our boxes - we did a design thinking about nets, joining techniques and strengthening techniques, then made a list of required materials which we had to choose from eg. tools, type of card etc
Next, we made prototypes of our boxes to check that the nets would work and that they would be fit for purpose!
Games and boxes!
Sharing our games and boxes with Year 1-2
