Brompton Westbrook Primary School

Design Technology

Hello designers and engineers! On this page you will find ideas, activities and websites related to design and technology, from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 2. You can share your your designs and models on Twitter@BWPrimary or email your year group.

Mrs Cobley

Design and Technology in Early Years

DT in Early Years is taught through expressive arts and design and incorporated into all areas of the curriculum. From Nursery to Reception pupils are provided with the opportunity to explore and experiment with construction resources and develop their creative thinking learning to use tools and techniques safely.

DT can be explored and taught through open-ended play. This enables children to explore materials, to work with tools and to observe and play with natural and manufactured objects.

Investigating treasure baskets and collections of natural and man-made/manufactured resources
Playing with everyday objects such as empty boxes, blocks and construction materials
Experimenting with tools such as scissors, hammers, hole punches, staplers
Making use of fixing and joining materials such as cellotape, masking tape, string, pipe cleaners
Exploring foods; naming fruit and vegetables, cutting soft fruits/vegetables, mixing ingredients

Below are some activities that your child can participate in to develop their DT skills and knowledge:

Construct a model using Lego, Duplo, wooden blocks and boxes. Children could base their design on a famous building, bridge, their house/flat
Making a card for a family member or friends – how can you fold the paper?
Make a puppet with moving parts (can use split pins)
Cutting activities, tricky challenge can you cut through different thickness of card/paper?
Exploring joining boxes/junk modelling together using different joining techniques such as string, glue, masking tape, treasury tags, elastic bands, plastic nuts and bolts, clothes peg
Baking activity – can your child explore pouring, mixing, stirring and blending ingredients together?
Dismantle a household object such as a pepper grinder, look at old clocks and see how they work (adult supervision required with loose parts)
Den making – how can you ensure that it stays up?
Make another bridge for the Billy Goats Gruff to cross so that the Troll doesn’t try to eat them
Can you fold paper in different ways to make the best paper aeroplane that travels the furthest?

Design and Technology in KS1

Below are activities that your child can complete at home to develop their Design and Technology skills. Children can think like an engineer and find ways of overcoming challenges to ensure that their product works.

Create a creature from recycled materials that has adapted to live in its environment and is camouflaged! Think about: where it will live, what it will eat, how it will travel.

Make a smoothie - taste and describe a selection of fruits and vegetables and decide which to include in a smoothie. Then come up with a name for your smoothie and design the packaging for it.

Investigate how many ways you can attach materials together without using tape or glue

Paper Aeroplane Challenge – can you make different designs of paper aeroplanes and find out which design travels the furthest?

Can you make a car with moving wheels using household objects?

INVESTIGATION OF LEVERS.

Supplies:

Plastic spoons
Rubber bands
Tape
Cylinderical block
Something to launch (ie foam blocks)

To make the levers wrapped a rubber band around a plastic spoon and a cylinder block (use two rubber bands to ensure they are held together securely). Tape the cylinder to the edge of the table.

For this investigation, make three levers with the fulcrum, that’s the point on a lever that pivots between the load and force (in our levers, that’s where the rubber bands hold the spoon to the block.), in three different positions. See photo below

The blue lever is balanced near the centre of the spoon’s handle. The red lever is held together near the end of the handle, while the green one has the rubber band right near the top of the spoon. Which do you think will launch the blocks the furthest?

Design and Technology in KS2

Follow a recipe – research different biscuits and then bake your own!
Arch and build bridges - Build and test the strength of different bridge structures using different materials

https://www.science-sparks.com/building-bridges-engineering-challenge-for-kids/