Design and Technology: Blog items
Date: 24th Feb 2023 @ 1:41pm
Nursery celebrated Pancake Day on Tuesday. We read the story "Mr Wolf's Pancakes" and wrote shopping lists of all the ingredients we needed. Then we worked together to mix the batter and Mrs Welch cooked the pancakes! We chose the toppings we wanted, we could have chocolate spread or lemon and sugar. They were delicious and there were lots of cries of "Please can I have some more!"
Reception- Pancake Day in Holly Class!
Date: 23rd Feb 2023 @ 9:10pm
The children have been celebrating Pancake Day by making pancakes in the kitchen.
The next day, the children then wrote about how to make pancakes.
Here's what we did.
"Mix the ingredients flour, milk and eggs in the bowl" Lennox.
"Pour the batter into the frying pan" Dillan.
"Cook it" Dolly- Anne
"We said 1,2,3 PANCAKE!"
"Mrs Mcallister flipped the pancake" Alfie- Ray.
"We then put the toppings on it" Harper.
"I had lemon and sugar" Archie
"i had chocolate sauce- it was yummy!" Halleigh
Date: 21st Feb 2023 @ 4:41pm
As part of our learning in Design and Technology, we were asked to design and create a food item with cultural significance. We decided to make a sweet treat to celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi. After a discussion about food safety and taste-testing some products already on the market, we worked in small groups to prepare and bake vanilla flavoured biscuits , which we decorated with icing in bright colours.
Date: 20th Feb 2023 @ 5:31pm
Today, we explored some existing toy cars and looked at how the cars moved. We discussed that the cars moved because they all had wheels and thought about why different sized vehicles have different sized/different amount of wheels. We then explored how the wheels are connected and learnt they are joined by an axle that ensures the wheels move together.
Date: 20th Feb 2023 @ 9:49am
The nursery children have shown a real interest in building over the last few weeks. They have worked together to build some amazing constructions and have worked as a team to build tall towers, ramps for cars and houses. The children were so good at solving problems that they only needed a little help from the adults - super work!
Date: 19th Jan 2023 @ 6:47pm
This week we enjoyed our DT day! We began by tasting lots of different fruits, talking about how we knew if certain foods are fruits or vegetables. We then moved on to designing our own fruit salad. We wanted it to be colourful, have at least four fruits in and to be cut up into bite sized pieces!
After creating our design, we then practised our cutting skills using play dough. We learnt how to use the bridge grip and the claw grip and once we had mastered the skills we moved onto making our fruit salad. We used the two cuts we had learnt to safely and sensibly prepare and make our individual fruit salad. We all enjoyed tasting them! Finally we completed our evaluation to identify what we liked about our design and what we might change if we were to make another fruit salad.
Date: 9th Jan 2023 @ 3:56pm
Today, we began our Design Technology food journey by fruit tasting so we are aware of the fruits we like and dislike before designing and making our own healthy fruit snack. We tried lots of different fruits including: blackberries, strawberries, mango, pineapple, pears, bananas, kiwi and apples. We realised we all enjoyed different fruits for different reasons and used adjectives to describe each fruits texture and taste.
Date: 13th Dec 2022 @ 11:51am
Today we made our linkage and lever system Christmas cards. We used loose pivots to connect the components together, then we attached the components to the card itself using a fixed pivot. The children designed their cards themselves, with a design brief of Christmas! Take a look at the QR code to see the cards in actions.
Date: 8th Dec 2022 @ 11:17am
This year for our enterprise task we have been making and preparing 'Reindeer Food' for Christmas Eve and Sweet Bags for the Christmas festivities. We spoke about what enterprise means and understood that we were making things to be sold. The 'Reindeer Food' and Sweet Bags will be sold at the school Christmas Fair next Wednesday!
Date: 5th Dec 2022 @ 9:31pm
After being visited by Hedgehog Rescue, the children had fun making hedgehog bread. They weighed out the ingredients (strong white flour, yeast, oil, water and salt) and then mixed them all in a bowl. They each had a go at kneading the dough and then after three balls of dough were moulded, using their hands, into a hedgehog shape they had great fun snipping at the dough to create the quills on the hedgehog. It was then left to rise before being baked in the oven and enjoyed by all in the afternoon!
"You have to push the dough really hard to make the bread" Harper.
"The prickles are called quills- I cut them with my scissors to make it look spikey" Lennox.
" The bread got bigger in the bowl before we cooked it in the oven!" Sheraa.
Date: 9th Nov 2022 @ 3:49pm
In DT today we have looked at 4 different types of stitching: running stitch, back stitch, over stitch and blanket stitch. The children practised each one to make sure their technique was good in order to use in their own piece in a few weeks times. We were very impressed with the skills the children demonstrated today.
Date: 6th Nov 2022 @ 11:08am
In the lead up to Remembrance Day on 11th November, Year Two have been creating poppies in Art. We glued two sticks together to create the cross and used our weaving skills to weave red wool through a template. This created a cross on the front and a square on the back, when we removed the cardboard template it created the shape of the poppy. It took a lot of perseverance to ensure we followed the number sequence correctly but everyone did very well!
Date: 31st Oct 2022 @ 6:22pm
Today, we began the start of our new half term by enjoying a DT day!
Firstly, we looked at existing products to explore the different mechanisms and moving parts in a range of picture books. We talked about how the moving part moves, how it works and what effect it has.
We then began to make two prototypes, a lever and a slider. We linked each mechanism to a story to create a moving picture for each. We all talked through the safety points and watched our teachers make an example, reading through the instructions together and spotting where they went wrong! We then each had a turn to follow the instructions, read them carefully and make our two prototypes.
We verbally evaluated our desgins, talking about what had gone well and what we could improve next time.
Date: 21st Oct 2022 @ 3:37pm
Today, we turned our designs into actual puppets that we could play with. We used our previously practiced skills to thread and knot the needle before beginning a running stitch. To finish them off, we cut different materials including felt, pipe cleaners and buttons to design our animal and add their features. Whilst making the products we had to display a variety of characteristics including: resilience, perseverance and patience.
Date: 19th Oct 2022 @ 2:51pm
Nursery have been reading the story "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" By Michael Rosen and have been having such a good time! The story has a repetitive text which is great for encouraging children to join in with stories. From the story we have had so many wonderful experiences including adding music to the story, making binoculars, making bears and making some delicious biscuits. To finish of the week we even went on our very own Bear Hunt and found the bear hiding in the woods with a delicious treat for us.
If you would like to share the story with your child here is a link to the author reading the story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iou5LV9dRP0
Date: 17th Oct 2022 @ 7:55am
In DT, we made prototypes. Some of us used cotton but some used felt! We discovered that it was much easier to use fabric pens on cotton and therefore we think this would be a better material for the final design. When we evaluated the prototypes, we decided that the colouring needed to be much needed and that small areas of colour would be easier. We tried different sizes and decided that 20cm x 20cm was a good size. Next time, we would use more resources such as felt, buttons and sequins to make the designs more interesting.
Date: 17th Oct 2022 @ 7:48am
In Science we started to look at magnets. We discovered that magnets have a north and south pole. We spent some time exploring whcih attract and which repel each other. We then went on to investigate what materials were magnetic. We learnt that metal objects were magnetic but this did not include aluminium, copper or gold! We then went on to plan an investegation for next week answering the question 'Which magnet is the strongest?'
Date: 29th Sep 2022 @ 7:56am
Today we began to practice the skill of sewing because we had decided this was the best method to join our material together to make a puppet. We began by threading the cotton thread through the eye hole of the needle before carefully tying a knot at the end of the thread. Next, we began to practice our sewing focusing on a running stitch. We had to demonstrate lots of patience, determination and perseverance as it was quite difficult but we displayed a growth mindset and never gave up!
Date: 22nd Sep 2022 @ 4:39pm
This week in Design Technology, we practised our marking out and cutting skills. We drew around an outline to give us the puppet template before carefully practising our cutting skills to make sure it looked like a puppet and had smooth edges. These skills will be important when making our final product.
Year 3 are super seamstresses!
Date: 22nd Sep 2022 @ 2:51pm
In Design & Technology today we practised the running stitch. This was a stitch we were familiar with and therefore it was good to practise and refresh our minds. Those of us that mastered the running stitch moved on to learning the backstitch. This is in preperation for making our very own cushions!
Date: 22nd Sep 2022 @ 7:52am
In DT we explore a variety of cushions, ready to eventually make our own. We evaluated them based on their design, comfort and how well they were joined. As a class we discussed the pros and cons for each cushion and ordered them from best to worst. We will now use inspiration from these when designing and making our final pieces.
Year 5 Safe Skills in Forest School
Date: 15th Sep 2022 @ 4:04pm
Today was about gaining some skills in being safe around equipment, in particular, knives, axes and mallets. We cut some sticks down, used the knives and peelers to whittle them to a flat surface and decorated them as tree markers. We also made a small safe fire and cooked the harvest of pears, which were delicious. We also built dens, created our own games, found another frog and worked well as a team on our knots!
Reception exploring the outdoor area
Date: 8th Sep 2022 @ 8:34pm
This week the children in Reception have had a great time in our outdoor area. The children have been practising putting on their waterproofs and wellie boots ready to explore our wonderful outdoor provision. They have been role playing in the mud kitchen, riding on the balance bikes, building in our construction shed, exploring the water and mark making using paint brushes. The children have worked together brillianlty ensuring take turns, share the resources and put them away properly. Have a look at what we have been up to!
Year 5 Art begins with Typography
Date: 8th Sep 2022 @ 12:36pm
We have started our learning in Art by creating our own different styles of Typography. We learnt that typography is any form of print style designed to create an idea or emotion. We learned about Louise Fili who is a famous graphic designer who created posters for the New York Subway using different type fonts. By cutting up paper and sketching, we started to create our own letters.
Date: 8th Sep 2022 @ 7:26am
This half term, Year Two will be following a journey to create our own animal puppets. For our first lesson, we explored different types of puppets including: Marionettes, Glove puppets, Shadow puppets and Finger puppets looking at the materials they had used to create the puppets, who would use the puppet as well as exploring how the different parts had been joined together. We particularly enjoyed exploring the glove and finger puppet as they are easy to use and felt soft on our hands. We are looking forward to learning how to sew to eventually create our own to take home.