Design and Technology: Blog items
Date: 7th Mar 2025 @ 10:43am
This week the children in Reception have been making pancakes. We talked about the tradition of pancake day how some people decide to give something up, during the Christain period of Lent. The children then enjoyed following a recipe to make and then eat their own pancakes. When we returned to the classroom we sequenced the pictures correctly and wrote our own insgtructions.
"You have to mix the eggs, milk and flour with a whisk" Harley
"Cook it in a frying pan" Dina
"The pancakes were yummy. I liked the chocolate the best" Kevin.
Date: 4th Mar 2025 @ 5:18pm
Nursery celebrated Pancake day with a stack of delicious pancakes! We read the story "Mr Wolf's Pancakes" and talked about the ingredients you need to make the pancake batter. We talked a little bit about why we celebrate Shrove Tuesday before the children helped to mix the pancake batter. They children watched patiently as Mrs Welch cooked the pancakes and even managed to successfully toss a few! It was all worth the wait as the chidlren thought the pancakes were delicious!
Year 3- Developing our key skills
Date: 3rd Mar 2025 @ 4:44pm
As part of our DT learning, the children have been looking at how the 3-D shell structures can be deconstructed into nets. Today we looked at developing our key skills of understanding and exploring nets. The children looked at making a range of different nets and also thought about which 3-D shape matched to which net.
Date: 27th Feb 2025 @ 9:12am
In DT we have been looking at frame structures and as a class we have designed, built and evaluated bug habitats and bird feeders. Addison took this idea and made her own bird feeder at home and has donated it to Year 5 so that we can keep an eye out for any winged visitors! Well Done and Thank You Addison!
Year 2- Exploring Moving Vehicles
Date: 27th Feb 2025 @ 8:10am
This week we started our new Design Technology unit of Moving Vehicles. To begin any unit we explore products that are already out there so we looked at different moving vehicles and explored how they move. We learnt they have wheels and axles to allow them to move and will use this knowledge in future lessons to help us when making our own.
Date: 14th Feb 2025 @ 2:01pm
Year 6 have had a great week in the kitchen! During our DT cooking journey we researched, designed and made our own pizzas. Part of the journey was to learn new skills and we focused on safely cutting and chopping ingredients using the claw and bridge grips. Linking to our careers curriclum, we talked about how the skills we learned during this journey could link to future careers. We watched a video about a sous chef who talked about his career path and the skills needed to do his job.
The children's finished pizza's looked and tasted amazing. We have some future chefs in the making!
Year 5 - Mastering Practical DT Skills
Date: 10th Feb 2025 @ 5:13pm
Today, pupils in year 5 have begun construction of their DT products. They are making eco-friendly 'bug hotels' which are constructed from a frame structure. In this lesson, pupils practised the skills of measuring, sawing and sanding to make the pieces of their frame structures from wood. Next we will start to contruct the frame, before adding sides and some shelter for the insects. Come back for more updates over the next week.
Date: 28th Jan 2025 @ 12:03pm
As part of our learning around 'Chinese New Year' the children have been making their own dragon puppets. They have been using lots of different skills that they have learnt since September to help them fix, join and assemble their puppet. The children worked independently and produced some fantastic work.
Date: 27th Jan 2025 @ 6:54pm
This week we created moving pictures to bring a bit of a story to life! We have been reading the story 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers and chose different key parts of this story to inspire our creations. We began by looking at existing products, before learning how to make a lever and a slider mechanism. We then created our design and made a prototype, before creating our final product!
Date: 16th Jan 2025 @ 4:31pm
Nursery have been learnig all about Winter and as part of our topic the chidlren made 3D snowmen. They had to manipulate the dough to create balls, then attach them together and then add some special features to to make the snowmen their own!
Date: 17th Dec 2024 @ 1:02pm
This half term we have been looking at architecture. We began our Art journey by exploring what architecture is and we looked at the work of Hunderwasser. We learnt that he liked bright, colourful buildings and would often use topsy turvy designs. We then designedour own buildings and chose a colour palette for our building. Over the last couple of days, we have been building, painting and decorating our houses ready to evaluate.
Date: 13th Dec 2024 @ 11:22am
This week Acorns have been reading the Gingerbread Man.
We have had lots of fun using the characters from the story to tell the story.
Omer - "Swim, swim"
We have enjoyed making our own collage gingerbread man and baked our own gingerbread cookies.
Date: 7th Nov 2024 @ 2:58pm
The children loved using some open ended resources to create their own rocks, They had to select the pieces they wanted and decide how they would attach them together. They also had to chat to their friends about the resources and share and take turns.
Year 4 -DT - Creating a lever and linkage
Date: 7th Nov 2024 @ 10:08am
In DT, we received a letter asking us to design and create a card. The specification was precise – we need to ensure it is a Christmas card, it is designed for primary school children and it has a linkage and lever system. We then looked at card designs and evaluated them.
Next, we learned about linkages and levers and created a basic one which we will adapt and use when we create our Christmas cards!
Date: 17th Oct 2024 @ 9:13pm
We have worked hard on following our final designs to create our pencil cases. We had to put all the skills we had practised into action including tying knots, threading needles and completing a running stitch. Some of us even used zips and buttons so we had to apply our skills to something new! We did a great job in following our designs and showed resilience, creativity and persistence in abundance whilst creating our final pieces. Well done Year 3!
Date: 10th Oct 2024 @ 4:06pm
Acorns have been exploring and celebrating Harvest. Today we have been making bread.
We had lots of fun mixing the ingredients and trying to knead the dough.
Our bread rolls turned out great. Have a look.
Date: 10th Oct 2024 @ 2:29pm
Nursery have thoroughly enjoyed reading "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen. They can all join in beautifully with the story and loved using musical instuements to make the sound of swishy swashy grass and squelchy squerchy mud. They created some fabulous bear puppets, counted and sorted bears by colour and even baked some delicious bear paw print biscuits.
Reception- Holly Class Bake Bread
Date: 4th Oct 2024 @ 4:39pm
After reading the story, Little Red Hen, Reception decided to bake bread. They all worked together, helping each other to weigh the ingredients, mix the ingredients and knead the dough before placing it in a bowl to allow it to rise. Then it was baked in the oven and eaten.
Unlike the story, where Little Red Hen had to do everything herself, all the children worked togther showing kidness and respect.
"It feels sticky" Harry
"We all helped to make the bread" Dina.
"Mmm it tastes delicious!" Riley.
"Little Red Hen's friends didn't help her" Hazel.
Reception Willow Class make bread
Date: 1st Oct 2024 @ 9:14pm
This week the children in Willow class have been reading the traditional tale 'Little Red Hen'. After reading the story we talked about the different ingredients we would need to make bread. We found out that we needed flour, yeast, water, salt and olive oil. We all went up to the kitchen to make some bread, just like the Little Red Hen. We measure followed the recipe and measure the correct amount of flour and water. We added some yeast, salt and olive oil and mixed it together to make dough. It was very important tha we kneaded the dough to make sure that the bread would rise in the oven. Once the dough was silky smooth we put it in a bowl and waited for it to rise. We then baked it in the own for 45 minutes. The children enjoyed tasty the bread when we took it out of the oven.
"It is delicious" Kevin
"It's hard kneading the dough" Lilah
"We need flour, salt, water and oil" Kamiyah
Date: 19th Sep 2024 @ 9:17am
This week we started to master the skills of sewing. We learnt how to thread, how to do a running stitch and we practised cutting precisely. It is a very difficult skill to master and we will be continuing to practise this in the upcoming weeks. Eventually, we will put this into practise to make our very own puppets! Watch this space!
Year 3 - DT - Investigating existing products and Market Research
Date: 9th Sep 2024 @ 9:05pm
To begin our DT journey, we looked at a range of existing pencil cases. We thought about what material they had been made from, how they had been joined, who the user was and how they opened and closed. We found most of the pencil cases were made from fabric and stitched together. Some pencil cases were made from wood or leather but these were less common. We also conducted some market research. We created a google form to gather data on what users would want from a pencil case. We thought about what we would need to put in a pencil case, the shape, the design, the material and how the case would close.
We then analysed the data to see what it told us. Our results showed that a character design is most popular. Those surveyed also wanted a soft pencil case that they could carry in their bags. We also found out that most children wanted lots of different things in their pencil case, so when we design our cases we need to make sure we have enough room and potentially a pocket for organising.
Date: 5th Sep 2024 @ 7:40am
Yesterday, we explored different types of puppets so we can take inspiration from them when we make our own puppets. We thought about what materials were used and how the parts were joined together to gain a better understanding of how they work and how these things make it appropriate for their user.
Date: 17th Jun 2024 @ 4:06pm
We continued our 'Mechanical Systems' unit by finding our more about pulleys and gears. We learned how pulleys an gears can be used in mechanical systems before experimenting making different gear chains. We also made pulleys from wooden dowel and cotton reels.
Reception Clay Bog Baby Models and Habitats
Date: 11th Jun 2024 @ 11:21am
Reception have been reading the story 'Bog Baby'. As part of our art work all the children made their own clay model of the Bog Baby. the children looked carefully at the different features of the Bog Baby including his big googley eyes, long spikey tail and little mouse like ears. The children explored the clay using their hands to manipulate the shape and size. They used the teachniques of slip, score and blend to successfully attach the different parts to their model. When the models had dried the child painted them carefully. Every child made their own home for the Bog Baby which they used a range of different materials from the create area.
"The water helped the clay to stick together" Mathew.
"Yo have to blend it properly or the tail will fall off" Elisha.
Date: 21st May 2024 @ 6:28pm
Today we finally finished our homes! We put all the finishing touches onto our final products using paints and other materials. We have worked very hard throughout this half term to look at existing homes, design our own home, make our prototype, make our final design and evaluate what we have made.
