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Design and Technology is a fantastic subject. It is so interesting and inspiring, involving creative and critical thinking skills to solve problems and find new and innovative ways of designing and making all kinds of products.
In Design and Technology children work through a process to design and make their own products. This begins with identifying what it is you will design and make. Once you have a goal in mind the process begins with evaluation of existing made products, moving on to acquiring and developing the knowledge and skills needed, which are then used and applied to design and make something amazing!
There are three areas of focus in DT:
- Resistant materials ~ the focus here is on structures and mechanisms and control
- Food Technology ~ we learn about nutrition and food for health, alongside food preparation techniques, from peeling a carrot to juicing a lemon, making our own granola to preparing a 3 course meal!
- Textiles ~ learning to sew and work with fabrics in a variety of ways.
Design Technology works really well alongside science, particularly physics; science looks at why and DT looks at how. DT also links to other curriculum areas such as history, art and geography. Children learn about global perspectives, for example studying homes and shelters from around the world ~ construction techniques and materials used and the reasons for these choices. It offers opportunities to consider environmental perspectives and also links well to the rights of the child (UNICEF). Many children use, apply and transfer DT skills across other curriculum areas, especially child-initiated independent learning. There are strong links to English (reading recipes, carrying out research, drawing designs, making lists) and maths, particularly shape, space and purposeful, relevant measurement. What a wonderful subject it is!
Click here to see our amazing Christmas cards
Spring Term 2022
Early Years, Year 1 and 2
Eat More Fruit and Vegetables
Last term we made our fruit and vegetable snack or drinks, following our individual designs, evaluating our finished products. Have a look at our delicious creations! Click here:
Homes
Continuing our focus on homes we will revisit the range of Three Little Pig stories we have been sharing. We will explore the materials used to make them . We will explore homes from around the world , considering the materials used to make them (Are they local materials? How are the homes made to suit the environment they are in? )What properties do homes have that make them suitable for the purpose they are used for. We will look at animal homes the same way (science link).
We will have a walk in the village to look at and talk about the different homes we can see. We will compare them, talking about what is similar and what is different. We will study our own homes and draw them.
To acquire the skills we need, we will learn how to saw wood and join it using card strips. We will learn how to make a hinge in a variety of ways to open a door.
Then we will design and make our own homes, deciding who our home will be for, how we will make it suitable for them and what we will need. Then we will make them, evaluating and improving as we go.
Key vocabulary for this focus:-
Door, window, wall, roof, roof truss, slate, tile, glass, steel, brick, concrete, bamboo, ice, room names and furniture names, square and strip wood, hacksaw, vice, sanding block, laminate, hinge……..design, cut, join, glue, evaluate, improve.
Year 3 and 4
We are all getting close to finishing our vehicles and they look amazing! We will evaluate our finished vehicles and then add photos for you to see our finished vehicles. They are amazing!
Puppets (Textiles focus)
Following this, we will begin a textiles focus. We will investigate a range of puppets from around the world, bringing our own puppets into school to share. What is a puppet? We will talk about the features and characteristics that make them look like the kind of puppet they are. Which features are added?
We will learn how to thread a needle and sew a simple running and cross stitch. We will learn about different fabrics and the name of a range of sewing equipment.
We will learn how to make a paper pattern and sew with right side facing. Then we will go on to research the type of puppet we have decided to design and make, considering who it is for (target group) and our design criteria. We will plan the steps we need to follow to design and make our own puppet. Then we will make it evaluating and improving as we go.
Key vocabulary for this area of focus:-
Fabric, needle, thread, knot, paper pattern, binca, cotton, felt, fleece, fur fabric, wool, voile etc.........string, shadow, glove, finger puppets, features, characteristics, target group, design criteria, timeline, safety eyes
Year 5 and 6
We are just finishing our resistant materials projects, which included the use of electrics, pneumatics and winding mechanisms. The final part of our learning is evaluation of the project. We will evaluate against our goals and design criteria.
Here are some photos of our finished projects. We are so proud of them and feeling a great deal of intrinsic reward.
We have decided together on food technology and textiles as our areas of focus for the rest of the school year.
We will begin with textiles. We will explore a variety of textiles from around the world, considering how they are sourced and made. If we can, we will visit a mill to find out about the history of mills in this country. We will touch on fast fashion and the pollution associated with this and, with this in mind will learn how to repair and embellish our clothing. We will learn about a range of fasteners and how to attach these to textiles. We may also learn about conductive thread and find out how to attach an LED light to textiles! With all these skills in place we will design and make our own object using textile with fasteners. We will consider our target group.
Key vocabulary for this focus is:-
Goal, design criteria (what will it need to do to work well), barriers, solutions, collaboration, resilience, detail….fabric, wool, cotton, silk, polyester, nylon, linen, cashmere, viscose, crepe, jersey, chiffon, voile, felt, fleece etc!
Press stud, button, button hole, hook and loop, buckle, Velcro, zip, toggle etc........running stitch and decorative stitches such as chain and blanket. Purpose, function, lining.
Spring 2020
In Year Reception and 1 we are learning about toys, with the goal of designing and making our own toy. We will link closely to history learning about toys from the past. We will learn about toys children play with around the world and the right to play (Unicef Rights of the Child). We will explore and evaluate toys we bring from home and a range of moving toys in school. We will then research and design our own toy, before making it. We will write poems and stories about our toys.
In Year 2 and 3 ~ Vehicles ~ We have been learning about a wide range of vehicles and will visit Carlisle airport to find out about vehicles in use at the airport. We want to travel by bus and train too. We will learn about the functions and purpose of different vehicles and make labelled diagrams of them. Then we will learn how to measure and cut wood accurately to make a chassis with axles and moving wheels. After this we will design and make our won vehicle, evaluating and improving as we go.
Click here to find out about our visit to Carlisle Airport
In Year 4, 5 and 6 ~ we have a food focus at the beginning of term, learning to make a meal with a soup starter, a main course and a desert. We will learn about nutrition, the balanced plate and traffic lights on foods. We will evaluate ingredients and follow recipes using reading and maths skills.
Later in the term we will move onto a resistant materials structures focus, learning about structures. More information to follow on this.
You can see the National Curriculum Design and Technology Programmes of study by clicking on the link below
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