Christmas all wrapped up!

One way to link the Materials Topic in year 2 with Christmas is to do an investigation into which is the best wrapping paper.

Start the session off with the story of The Jolly Christmas Postman by Allan and Janet Ahlberg. Explain to the children you have a really awkward shaped Christmas gift you need to post to a friend but you are unsure of what to wrap it in to stop it getting damaged in the post. Can they help you investigate? Share some samples of different types of wrapping paper asking the children to explore the properties – what do they think a wrapping paper will need to do? (look Christmassy, be flexible/tough/waterproof/strong/hard wearing etc). Get the children to predict which paper they think will protect the gift best.

Then wrap up some similar shaped objects and give them to the school secretary to post back to school (at this point just pretend they have been posted unless you can afford the postage!!). Whilst in the care of the school secretary manhandle the parcels as if you were a delivery driver in the pouring rain….

After a couple of days return the parcels to the class as if they have just been delivered. Take a look at the parcels to see which has wrapping paper that has stayed in one piece and protected the gift. Get the children to work out a way to measure how they have performed. You could even use the samples of wrapping paper in a visual graph. Ask them to return to their predictions and explain whether the results support their predictions and how they know.