EYFS
Nursery
Our topics for this term are ‘Dinosaurs’, ‘Roots, shoots and muddy boots’.
Here are some observations from Tapestry of children using Design and Technology to develop their learning:
A child came to show me the plane that she had made, I was very impressed. She told me that it was like the plane that she went on a long time ago. When I asked her where she had gone she said, “On holiday, it was hot, I like when it hot. I like swimming.” I agreed that holidays were good fun. I looked at her plane and wondered if anything was missing, she was unsure so we looked at a picture of a plane together. The child noticed the writing on the plane and the windows, I suggested that she add them to her plane. She knew that she needed either a square or a rectangle but was unsure how to draw one, I modelled how and she tried hard to draw them on her plane; she even drew a window for the pilot to look out of.
Reception
Our topics for this term are ‘Fantasy’, ‘People who help us’.
Here are some observations from Tapestry of children using Design and Technology to develop their learning:
A child and his friends decided to use the large construction to build themselves a new juice machine. As the machine was taking shape the child realised that it wouldn’t stay standing up. I explained to him that it wasn’t ‘balancing’ and we chatted about what this word meant. We looked at a chair and I pointed out that each of its four legs were in the corners and this helped the chair to be stable. The child noticed his machine had only three legs and two of the were on one side. He worked hard to redesign his machine and we then tested how stable it was by gently bumping into it.
A child came over and showed me that she had made a watch on the making table. I asked her what we use watches for and she told me we use them to tell the time. I asked her if she could remember what we had talked about in maths before about time and she was unsure, so I reminded her that when the big hand points to the 12 we say O’clock at the top. She then remembered and did the action while saying it. I then looked at her watch and realised that she had drawn 2 O’clock as the time and asked her if she knew what time she had drawn. She had a look at and said 2 O’clock! Well done!
Key Stage One
Year 1
This term our topics have been ‘Weather Experts’ and ‘Our Planet and beyond’.
The children discussed traveling around on the moon in a moon buggy. They looked at some photos of moon buggies and talked about what features a moon buggy would need such as
wheels and a steering wheel. The children then worked hard as they designed and made their own moon buggies and tested them in motion.
Year 2
This term our topics have been ‘Air, Land and Sea’ and ‘Art around the world’.
During the topic ‘Air, Land and Sea’ the children made Ham pasta bake and enjoyed eating this in school. It was delicious!
The children also talked about how people travel on water and discussed what is special about modes of water transport and who might travel on water and why. The children then designed their own boats to travel on water. They thought about what materials would be best to use and how to ensure their boat was going to float. The children chose their own materials to make their boats and tested them in a tray of water to see if their design and build had been successful. They then evaluated their boats and thought about what they would do differently next time.
As part of our ‘Art around the world’ topic the children have been learning about different countries. They made and tasted a vegetable curry and this was new to many of the children but most said they enjoyed eating it and some said they would like to have it again.
