If your school museum attracts a number of items, you will have to make a selection. Consider how that will be made: you may wish to choose one to represent every type, or the best examples, or something chosen by every child. Then you must think about display: Will it be simply laid out on a table or more elaborately exhibited in cabinets?

Talk about display:

• Fossil, bones and shells are best grouped together

• Coins can be displayed in albums

• Badges are best exhibited on a fabric display board

• Be careful not to display printed and delicate items such as water colours,embroidery or photographs, in sunlight, as they will fade.

Discuss labelling:

• You may like to discuss how the displays should be labelled. Should they describe what the items are made of? How they were used? Where they were found? Who gave them and when?

• Why not ask pupils to design and print out labels on a computer? They willhave to consider the legibility and size of type faces and whether the lettersshould be upper and lower case or all capitals

• Lastly, invite your pupils to give the museum a name! You may like to makea poster for the museum. Development

• Visit your local museum to look at the way it has been displayed. You may like to use the activity sheet (9).

• Create an exhibition on the web with the virtual material the children havecollected. This may involve your IT department and others. Examples are availableonline through the 24 Hour Museum.