In Your Shoes

• Elephant Boot

Learning Objectives:

• To develop knowledge and understanding of shoe materials and components
• To plan and communicate ideas for shoe designs
• To make shoes using tools, materials and components
• To evaluate shoes, their suitability and the making process

Introduction: Why do we wear shoes? Look at the Elephant Boot, Star the Dog’s Shoes and WW2 Women’s Land Army Shoe. Ask the pupils to think about who wore them and for what purpose. Zoom out to the wearers and discusss why they wore them. Use one as a starting point for literacy work, e.g. a story about a day when Star investigated a fire, a newspaper report on Jumbo's trek or a diary entry for Winifred Hall.

You can use any of the shoes in this pack as a focus for the following activities.  For each shoe ask the children to show what they would look like wearing them.

1. What materials are used to make shoes? Look at the shoes and collect examples of the materials used to make them, allow pupils to feel and describe the materials. They could make a table which lists each shoe, it's purpose, it's materials and properties. 
2. How suitable are the materials used to make shoes? Pupils could  investigate the durability and suitability of shoe materials. They could test or plan to test water resistance - will rain soak into the materials? Hardness - will they scuff if rubbed with a coarse material? Flexibility - will they crease or tear if bent or twisted? Grip and friction - how will they move on different surfaces?
3. What are the different components of shoes? Look at different styles compare the fastening, heel, upper, sole and toe shape for each shoe.  Pupils could draw and label one shoe and use magazine clippings to make a montage, focusing on one component. Make a display of their drawings, collages and an old shoe taken apart for handling and labeling. Pupils could use computers to create a branching database organising and classifying the shoes according to their different components and materials e.g. Does the shoe have a high heel? Is it made of leather? etc.
4. Pupils can play Build a shoe and Label a shoe
5. How are shoes made? Look at one machine made shoe and brainstorm all the jobs involved in its production e.g. designer, factory worker, shop worker. Pupils could pretend to be market researchers and survey people to find out what they look for in a pair of shoes for a particular purpose e.g. a sport, a particular job or a party.
6. How are shoes made? Compare shoes which have been machine made or handmade. Pupils could design and make shoes for a particular purpose, drawing on their previous research. They could use various materials and an old shoe, slipper or the In Your Shoes: Pattern (3426 kb) as a base.
7. How are shoes packaged and advertised?  Look at examples of shoe advertising and packaging. Pupils could decorate an old shoe box to pack their completed shoes in and put on display. They could make posters and leaflets or film their own TV adverts. They could have a shoe catwalk show or photograph and display their work in a portfolio.

• Queen Victoria's wedding shoes

Learning Objectives

• To develop knowledge and understanding of Roman people living in Britain.
• To develop knowledge and understanding of people from different sections of society living in Victorian Britain.
• To develop knowledge and understanding of the impact of the Second World war on Britain.

Who wore these shoes?

Introduction: Explore the interactive Shoes through time with the pupils. Then ask them to label then chronologically order the Roman sandal, Queen Victoria’s Wedding Shoes, Whimsical Walker Clown Shoes, Victorian concealed boot, WW2 Women’s Land Army Shoe, 1950s ladies fish skin sandals on a timeline, highlighting how fashions, shoemaking methods and materials have changed over time.

Roman:

1. Look at the Roman sandal, zoom out to the hobnailed sole, compare it to modern shoes with studs or spikes such as Christopher Chattaway’s Running Shoes. Consider the type of surface Romans walked on. Find out more about the introduction of roads in Britain, your nearest Roman Road and what else Romans wore.

Victorian:

1. Look at the Whimsical Walker Clown Shoes and Queen Victoria’s Wedding Shoes. Compare and contrast the features and purpose of their shoes.
2. To explore their different roles in society, pupils could write a letter from Queen Victoria to the Clown inviting him to perform at Windsor Castle.
3. Pupils could chose either Queen Victoria or the Whimsical Walker, discuss what each person would have looked like and draw them, find out more about them and write a biography.
4. Pupils could take on the role of either the Whimsiacl Walker or Queen and show how they would have moved around in their shoes and the gestures they would have used. In a hot seating activity they could ask each other questions, then create scenes in pairs using action and freeze framing. 
5. Play 'Hunt the slipper' a traditional parlour game.  Everyone sits in a cirlce, one player sits in the middle with eyes shut. Drop a slipper behind someone in the circle, the slipper is passed around the circle behind backs. The person who is 'on' opens their eyes and has to guess who has it. To confuse them the shoe can still be passed around, when caught they swap over.
6. Look at the Victorian concealed boot. Explore the features of the shoe and how it was found, annotate the boot with the pupils ideas for why people may have hid shoes in their houses.
7. Pupils could imagine they were the child who wore this boot and write about the day it was hidden in the thatch of a cottage.
8. To explore diffrences in wealth and class they could make comparisons between the boot and Queen Victoria's shoes.
9. Research shoe superstitions and sayings and explore their meanings, e.g. Queen Victoria had old shoes thrown after her on her arrival to her new home, attaching old shoes to a wedding car or putting shoes on the table.

Second World War:

1. Look at the WW2 Women’s Land Army Shoe and related resources. Use them to explore the purpose of the Women's Land Army. Annotate the features on this shoe which make them suitable for the work.
2. Pupils could imagine the War has just started and make Women's Land Army recruitment posters.
3. They could write a letter from Winifred to a friend, after the war had ended, explaining the work she did, her uniform, etc.
4. Look at the 1950s ladies fish skin sandals. Ask pupils to think about why fish skin leather was used to make shoes during and after the war. This could link to work on shortages and rationing.
5. Pupils could think about the work of a cobbler then design a poster which encourages people to 'Make Do and Mend' their own shoes. 

• Chinese Bound foot Shoes

Learning Objectives:

• To  reflect upon cultural differences and similarities around the world
• To understand issues that can affect their health and well-being 

Activities:

1. Look at the the Chinese Bound Foot Shoes use rulers to demonstrate their length. Pupils could imagine wearing them, show how they would walk then describe how it feels and what efect it would have on their lives. Ask them to think of reasons why Chinese women wore them. Can they think of any traditions in their culture which can be painful?
2. Pupils could try and think of other examples of how some people feel pressured to go through pain and suffering in order to be liked by people and make up role-plays or draw cartoon strips which highlight them.
3. Pupils could measure their feet and use a foot measurer to find their shoe size. Thinking about the effects of ill-fitting shoes pupils could pretend to be shoe fitters in a shop or chiropractors and write instructions or make up a role-play which gives advice on healthy feet and choosing the right shoes.

• Paduka toe-peg sandal

Learning Objective:

• To consider the meaning of symbols and traditions in some religions

Activities:

1. Discuss the components, shape and style of the Paduka toe-peg sandal. Ask pupils to think about why they are usually only worn by sacred people, why the foot is seen as a sacred symbol in Hinduism and why some Hindus walk bare foot inside. Use the Internet or books to find pictures of gods wearing toe-peg sandals or of people worshipping the feet of the divine.
2. Look at the pattern on the shoe and some Henna mendhi designs for feet and hands, pupils could draw around their own foot and design their own mendhi patterns.
3. Find and discuss the meanings of other symbols in Hinduism and other religions. 

• Child's clogs

Learning Objectives:

• To describe what places are like
• To recognise how weather conditions are different around the world

Activities:

1. Look at the Child's Clogs, Paduka toe-peg sandal and Roman sandal. Discuss the materials and features of each shoe and ask children to decide what type of weather and surface conditions each shoe was designed for.
2. Locate and place the shoes on an interactive whiteboard world map then research and describe the climate and features of each country.
3. Draw and label one shoe with the features that make it suitable to the place.
4. Design a shoe for another country based on what they know about the weather conditions and physical and human features of the environment.
5. Pupils can play with the interactive Shoes from around the world