Most people collect and display something in their lives. It might be a collection of family snaps stuck into an album, or holiday souvenirs arranged on a mantlepiece, assembled and displayed without any thought of being a 'collector'. Other people form collections for a specific purpose: Old Masters for investment, or memories 'collected' on tape to preserve a changing way of life, for example.

Sometimes people give their collections to museums where they are professionally cared for and made accessible to everyone. In the past, and occasionally today, private collections form the basis of new museums.

You may like to start the project by discussing the idea of collecting:

• Ask children to describe any museums they may have visited and what they liked/didn’t like about them

• Discuss different types of collections such as small, large, perishable, valuable, old and modern items

• Encourage Children to write about a ‘Fantasy’ museum in which they can collect anything they like, or make one using pictures chosen from magazines and catalogues.

Developments

• Discuss the value of things — what is valuable to one person may be of no value to another

• Explain that objects may have a historical, scientific or emotional value event though they have little or no monetary value