Students investigate the question, “How can we make a toy that a preschooler will enjoy playing with and want to keep?” by interviewing preschoolers, observing play, and visiting the Denver Toy Museum and nature areas to notice how toys are used and what makes play safe, joyful, and meaningful. They use those observations to define a real problem, sketch and build a toy with wings, wheels, or soft materials, and revise it based on feedback and testing. Through collaboration, dramatic play, making, and presentation, students practice listening with empathy, solving problems for a real audience, and giving something they created to another child.

Students will ask questions, observe preschool play, and gather information from interviews, museum visits, and nature exploration to define what makes a toy fun, safe, and appropriate for a younger child. They will sketch, test, and build a toy with wings, wheels, or soft materials, using shape and materials to solve the problem of creating something a preschooler will enjoy and keep. Students will use imaginative play, dramatic play, and simple models to explore how toys work and how people use them kindly and responsibly. They will collaborate with peers, revise their work from feedback, and present their finished toy with care and clear communication in response to the question, “How can we make a toy that a preschooler will enjoy playing with and want to keep?”

Students will create interview notes and picture-based observation charts, simple toy sketches and labeled plans, practice models, and a final handmade toy such as wings, a wheeled toy, or a stuffed animal designed for a preschooler. Throughout the project, they will also make play-testing records, revision drawings, museum and nature exploration documentation, and class anchor charts about safe, kind, and appropriate play. To share their learning, students will create a short presentation or dramatic demonstration that explains who the toy is for, how its shape and materials help it work, and how to use it safely. The culminating products are the finished gift toy, the presentation to the preschool buddy, and a reflection showing how feedback helped improve the design.

Invite preschoolers to visit for a short play session so kindergarteners can watch, ask simple questions, and notice what kinds of toys preschoolers enjoy, which introduces the question, “How can we make a toy that a preschooler will enjoy playing with and want to keep?” Follow with a field study to the Denver Toy Museum where students test how wings, wheels, and stuffed toys work, sketch favorite features, and practice talking about safe, kind play. Back in class, set up dramatic play and maker stations with fabric, wheels, boxes, and loose parts so students can explore materials, act out giving a handmade toy to someone else, and begin imagining what they might design. End the launch with partner talk and a class chart of preschoolers’ needs, toy ideas, and questions to investigate.

Host a “Toy Giving Day” where preschool buddies, families, and school staff visit a gallery of student-made wings, wheeled toys, and stuffed animals, along with simple sketches, photos from the toy museum and nature explorations, and labels explaining how each toy solves a preschooler’s play need. Kindergarteners present directly to their preschool partner, demonstrate how to safely and kindly play with the toy, and then gift it to the child to keep. Include a short dramatic play moment in which students use puppets or role-play to show how their toy can be used, connecting design, art, and empathy. End with a celebration circle where preschoolers respond with smiles, words, or picture choices about what they enjoyed, giving kind feedback to the toy makers.