Rubber and its Stories:
Distance Education for Primary Schools
The first course shared with teachers in the Pirelli Foundation Educational programme, which is designed to help Italian schools expand their remote education services, lets children find out about the origin of natural rubber, its characteristics and its uses – with a particular focus on tyres – and to see and listen to the stories that have sprung from the imagination of great authors inspired by this material.
The school subjects involved in these analyses are: Art and Image, Science, Italian, and History.
Each teacher can choose whether to present the children with all the elements included in the course or only one or more elements, depending on the time available and their study plan. At the end of each section, some activities are suggested, which the children can perform on their own, as instructed by the teacher.
The content is structured as follows:
- Video – Natural rubber
Pirelli: where rubber comes from and how it is used
- Audio – Il bambino di gomma by Alfonso Gatto
Reading of the poem on the “child made of rubber” by the Salerno-born writer Alfonso Gatto, from Pirelli magazine, with an introduction on the author
- Video – News from the Turin Motor Show
A humorous animated commercial created in 1951 by Toni Pagot, the cartoonist and pioneer of Italian animation cinema
- Audio – Il gatto di gommapiuma ha i baffi di nailon by Bruno Munari
Reading of the text on “the foam-rubber cat with nylon whiskers”, from Pirelli magazine, by the famous artist Bruno Munari, the inventor for Pirelli of the toy cat Meo Romeo, with an introduction on the author
- Video – Auteur sketches
Guided interpretation of two historical sketches for Pirelli tyre advertisements
VISIT TO THE FOUNDATION
The course ends with a Virtual Tour – a visit to the Pirelli Foundation from home.
Like a treasure hunt, the children will be able to move around the rooms of the Foundation looking for objects related to the themes examined in the course.
If you would like to receive this information, or have any further requirements, please write to scuole@fondazionepirelli.org
caption: Sketch for a Pirelli Rolle tyre advertisement, 1958, Brunati – Mendini – Villa


The first course shared with teachers in the Pirelli Foundation Educational programme, which is designed to help Italian schools expand their remote education services, lets children find out about the origin of natural rubber, its characteristics and its uses – with a particular focus on tyres – and to see and listen to the stories that have sprung from the imagination of great authors inspired by this material.
The school subjects involved in these analyses are: Art and Image, Science, Italian, and History.
Each teacher can choose whether to present the children with all the elements included in the course or only one or more elements, depending on the time available and their study plan. At the end of each section, some activities are suggested, which the children can perform on their own, as instructed by the teacher.
The content is structured as follows:
- Video – Natural rubber
Pirelli: where rubber comes from and how it is used
- Audio – Il bambino di gomma by Alfonso Gatto
Reading of the poem on the “child made of rubber” by the Salerno-born writer Alfonso Gatto, from Pirelli magazine, with an introduction on the author
- Video – News from the Turin Motor Show
A humorous animated commercial created in 1951 by Toni Pagot, the cartoonist and pioneer of Italian animation cinema
- Audio – Il gatto di gommapiuma ha i baffi di nailon by Bruno Munari
Reading of the text on “the foam-rubber cat with nylon whiskers”, from Pirelli magazine, by the famous artist Bruno Munari, the inventor for Pirelli of the toy cat Meo Romeo, with an introduction on the author
- Video – Auteur sketches
Guided interpretation of two historical sketches for Pirelli tyre advertisements
VISIT TO THE FOUNDATION
The course ends with a Virtual Tour – a visit to the Pirelli Foundation from home.
Like a treasure hunt, the children will be able to move around the rooms of the Foundation looking for objects related to the themes examined in the course.
If you would like to receive this information, or have any further requirements, please write to scuole@fondazionepirelli.org
caption: Sketch for a Pirelli Rolle tyre advertisement, 1958, Brunati – Mendini – Villa