Design and Technology - Autumn Term

Date: 21st Dec 2021 @ 3:35pm

I am proud to announce, once again, that Design and Technology is flourishing at Wardley. Despite all the chaos of Covid, the teachers and children have researched, designed and created some amazing products; building on the skills that they were mastering previously.

Year 1 have been learning about the direction of movements and exploring the mechanisms required to make these work. They created examples of side-to-side and up-and-down sliders.  Then, they used this knowledge to design and create their very own story book of Humpty Dumpty which included the mechanisms they had learnt about.

'I can't wait to play with this at home.’

‘I am looking forward to showing it to her little sister’.

Year 2 came up with our own designs for hand puppets and then made them out of felt.   First of all they read about different types of puppets and watched some puppets being made.  After that, the children decided who our puppets would be designed for.  Next, traced around a template onto felt, cut our puppets out and then sewed the front to the back of our puppets.  Then, they added details using other materials such as googly eyes, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, wool, cotton wool, buttons and other pieces of fabric.  Lastly, they thought about how they might improve our designs next time.  

'I enjoyed selecting the different materials.  It was so much fun.'

'I changed my design when I made my puppet, but only a little bit.'

Year 3 were challenged to design and make a box.  The box comes with a small Christmas gift inside, for a member of the family.  The children have worked brilliantly together; helping each other with their DT skills such as measuring, cutting, joining, scoring and assembling.  They have explored 3D shapes by assembling cubes, prisms, cuboids and tetrahedrons from nets and straws to make frames.

‘First, I designed my product and decided what materials I should use. Next, I looked at a cereal box to see how it was made.

After, I made a prototype so I could get used to assembling my final product. I used cutting, scoring, folding, assembling and finishing skills.’

Year 4's project was to design a Christmas card with a moving part. They children were looking at mechanisms and using levers and linkages to create movement. The children's cards were brilliant!

‘I thought it would turn out different but I'm impressed about the way it moves and enjoyed it a lot.’

‘I really loved it because the design and the lever looked good at the end.’

Year 6 have been practising their sewing skills. Using a double-stitch, they created a seam allowance making their edging much neater.  Using historical images and ideas particularly from the Victorian era, the children designed a Christmas stocking which can proudly hung on their fireplaces this Christmas Eve.

'I surprised myself during the project because sewing was a new skill to me.'

'I will definitely be asking Father Chrismas for a sewing kit.'

From a subject leader’s point of view, I thought the children and teachers were superb.  This was a steep learning curve for many of them, researching, designing and creating something new, but it seems they all thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

I have attached some photographs of each class to show the design process and their amazing final products.

Thank you to all the children and staff for making Design and Technology and complete success at Wardley.

Mr A Tinkler (DT subject leader)