Design and Technology: Blog items
Date: 26th Feb 2024 @ 5:56pm
Reception have been learning about the celebration- Chinese New Year- the year of the dragon.
They made Chinese lanterns and dragons, painted Chinese dragons, talked about Chinese food and how similar it is to other celebrations, such as Christmas and birthdays.
"You clean the house ready to celebrate and eat special food" Mathew.
"You get presents and treats" Lucy.
"It is the year of the dragon" Loui-Tony.
"i like Chinese food- I eat rice and noodles and chicken" Mireya.
"You eat Chinese food with chopsticks" Myah.
Year 5 - Holi vanilla biscuits
Date: 23rd Feb 2024 @ 3:49pm
Today has been a busy day in year 5. We have learned about food hygiene, evaluated existing biscuits, designed, made and decorated biscuits to celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi. Now all we need to do is eat them!
Date: 22nd Feb 2024 @ 8:43pm
What a great day we had in Year 6 today! Over the last couple of days we have been researching pizzas and looking at recipes in order to design our own pizza. Today we worked in groups and pairs to make from scratch the pizza dough and the sauce. We then split the dough into equal parts and rolled/stretched it out to create a thin base. Once this was done, we added the sauce and then picked a range of different toppings to add. We were very impressed with the results and they tasted amazing!! We are going to evaluate our pizzas tomorrow and say what we liked about our prodct and what we would add/change.
Year 2- Exploring Moving Vehicles
Date: 22nd Feb 2024 @ 2:04pm
This week, we have begun our Design Technology unit 'Mechanisms- Moving Vehilces'. We started by exploring a variety of moving vehicles and discussed how they move. We learnt that the wheels are connected by an axle which allows the cars wheels to move freely at the same time. We will use this knowledge to help us when building our own car.
Year 5 - Aspire-ing Carpenters
Date: 8th Feb 2024 @ 11:58am
This week pupils visited Aspire Academy to begin contruction of their frame structures. We were able to use the workshop and have expert teaching. Pupils learned the names of the equipment and had a go at measuring, sawing and sanding the wood.
Date: 1st Feb 2024 @ 2:03pm
Rowan class visited Aspire Academy yesterday as part of our Design and Technology unit. We have been working on frame structures this half term and the children were able to use the workshop at Aspire to start to build their frame structures, using all of the appropriate equipment. The children worked really hard and produced some great work using measuring and cutting skills.
Date: 1st Feb 2024 @ 1:29pm
Today we started our DT journey based on cooking. We will be creating our own wraps/pittas. We started the day by focusing on what it meant to have a healthy balanced diet and created a presentation. We then taste tested a variety of foods. Finally, we designd our wraps/pittas ready to make next week! Keep your eyes peeled for our final products!
Nursery Try to Catch The Gingerbread Man!
Date: 31st Jan 2024 @ 11:21am
Nursery had their work cut out when they read the story "The Gingerbread Man". We ran as fast as we could but we just couldn't catch him! So, instead we explored the ingredients we needed to make gingerbread and then made our own Gingerbread Men. We practised ordering numbers 1 - 5, followed instructions to draw a gingerbread man and used tweezers to add buttons on gingerbread men. We never did catch the Gingerbread man!
Date: 30th Jan 2024 @ 4:08pm
Today, we used our designs to make healthy fruit smoothies. First, we washed our hands to make sure we were ready to handle food before practicing the bridge method to hold and carefully chop different fruit into smaller pieces. Once the fruit was all chopped up, we put the correct fruits into a blender until they were smooth. Then we got to taste them! Most of us loved our smoothies and thought they were really tasty.
Date: 28th Jan 2024 @ 10:46am
What a great day we had for our DT Food Day! We started the day planning what we wanted in our sandwiches and what we wanted the sandwich to look like. Then we recapped how to do the bridge and claw method for cutting food. When we were deciding what to put in our sandwiches we had to remember that they needed to look appetising and needed to be an example of a balanced diet. Year 4 did a great job!
Date: 25th Jan 2024 @ 6:07pm
Today we created our final product to bring our designs to life! We followed our design to safely cut out the pieces we needed to create our mechanisms and put them together to make our final picture. We all showed lots of perseverance and determination to create our moving pictures.
Date: 24th Jan 2024 @ 6:56pm
Today we began our DT journey and learnt about different mechanisms.
The first mechanism we created was a slider. We created a slider based around a scene from ‘The Gingerbread Man’, which enabled a character to move forwards and backwards to chase the main character. We learnt how we were going to make the mechanism safely, read through the instructions and took great care to carry out each step.
The next mechanism to master was a lever. For this mechanism we linked our learning to the story Jack and the Beanstalk. Again, we talked through the instructions as a class, following the prototype Miss Kay made and spotting her mistakes! We then had a turn at making the lever mechanism ourselves. We followed each instruction carefully and all successfully made a lever to show Jack and his beanstalk! We accurately measured specific lengths and cut all the parts correctly. We recapped on the importance of safety whilst using scissors and putting split pins through pieces of paper and card. We then discussed the key parts of the mechanism such as the arm and pivot.
Date: 23rd Jan 2024 @ 4:29pm
In Year Two, we have been busy trying lots of fruit to think about what we like and dislike in preparation for making our smoothies. We tried a variety of fruits including: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, mango, pineapple, melon and kiwi. We described the texture, the smell and the taste of each fruit and will use it to help us design and make our own smoothie in the coming weeks.
Date: 22nd Jan 2024 @ 8:22pm
This half term, Year 4 are creating their own platter of sandwiches. To help decide what fillings they wanted in their sandwich, they tasted 15 different fillings and 3 types of bread. Whilst tasting the different foods, the children wrote down their thoughts about the appearance, smell, taste and texture of the foods. We then used these ideas to create a class table of descriptions.
Year 6 - Textiles (felt mobile phone cases)
Date: 21st Dec 2023 @ 3:38pm
This week we have carried out a full journey of textiles. We began with discussing what we already knew about sewing and textiles and discussed key vocabulary. We then began looking at felt products that already exist and evaluating them. We then practised a range of stitches using Binca - we practised running stitch, back stitch, over stich and blanket stitch. After that, we planned and designed our own mobile phone cases using an agreed success criteria. To ensure our plan was effective, we created a prototype and then evaulated the product so that changes could be made if needed. Finally, we made our final product.
Date: 9th Nov 2023 @ 4:03pm
Today, pupils in Year 6 were given the oportunity of taking part in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) workshop. Working in small groups, they had to build a lego robot, which incorporated a small computer, lights and motors. Pupils then coded algorithms to guide their robot around a circuit.
Date: 9th Nov 2023 @ 3:54pm
Today, pupils in year 5 were given the oportunity of taking part in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) workshop. Working in small groups, they had to build a lego robot, which incorporated a small computer, lights and motors. Pupils then coded algorithms to guide their robot around a circuit. The final challenge was to collect an item in their robot using a scoop or magnet. All the pupils had a great experience and learnt a lot about coding and engineering.
Year 3- Take a look at our pillows!
Date: 2nd Nov 2023 @ 2:55pm
We finally finished our pillows! We took time and care in firstly creating the degin on out pillows and attaching decorations. We then had to stuff and sew the pillows. Once we finished we evialuated them based on their appearence, joining techniques and their purpose.
Date: 30th Oct 2023 @ 10:19am
We finished our Christmas cards for The Card Factory! We designed them on laptops and made them move using a lever mechanism.
Date: 19th Oct 2023 @ 2:03pm
Over the last few days, Year 2 have been incredibly busy creating their final products. The children demonstrated patience and resilience when threading a needle, tying a knot and sewing all the way around the outside of their puppet to successfully join the two pieces of material together. Then, they followed their designs, using different materials to cut out and create their animal. They have loved creating their puppets and cannot wait to take them home and play with them!
Date: 17th Oct 2023 @ 4:51pm
Today, alongside the whole School we participated in our termly no pen morning. We began the morning by consolidating our knowledge of telling the time to the nearest 5 minutes where we played a board game with a partner having to tell the time on the square we landed; this was also brilliant for our communication and turn taking skills as well as being able to support one another. Then, we continued our fantastic morning by beginning to sew our puppets together ready to be decorated; we carefully threaded the needle and tried to do a running stitch- we had to demonstrate good perseverence and resillience but we are excited to make our final product. Check back over the coming days to see our final puppets!
Reception- Holly Class Bake Bread
Date: 8th Oct 2023 @ 10:16pm
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" Loui- Tony
"We all helped to make the bread" Lucy.
"Mmm it tastes delicious!" Meriya.
"Little Red Hen's friends didn't help her" Kierah.
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 12:18pm
Every Friday is Fun Friday in Nursery! We try to do an exciting activity each week to celebrate another super week in school. The activities often invlove working as a team and sharing a taking turns which is great for developing the children's social and emotional skills. This week is was baking! We made some delicious star biscuits.
Reception- Willow class make bread
Date: 6th Oct 2023 @ 11:12am
This week the children in Reception have been reading the traditional tale 'Little Red Hen' After role playing the story and writing about the characters the children went up to your school kitchen Redcliffs to make bread. The followed a recipe and used the correct ingredients flour, water, salt, yeast and oil. The children kneaded the dough just like the Little Red Hen. We then put it in the oven and waited for it to bake. In the afternoon the children enjoyed tasting the bread.
"The flour is very soft" Oliver
"You need to knead the dough" Esmai
""The yeast makes it get bigger" Elisha
It is very tasty" Summer
Year 4- Creating Christmas Cards
Date: 5th Oct 2023 @ 8:13pm
This half term in DT, Year 4 have been working towards designing, making and evaluating their own Christmas card using linkage and lever systems. Therefore, we have been mastering the practical skills needed to create our first moving mechanism. Using cards and split pins, we were able to create a waving hand! We will use these new practical skills when we start making our cards later in the half term.
