DT in Reception

Summer 1 - Mechanical Systems 

Making a Wacky Races Car

Technical Knowledge

We watched the video of Wacky Races to explore different types of cars in the Wacky Race, what kind of gadgets they had.  

We looked at how different cars looked and where the different parts of the car, such as wheels, doors, windows, were situated.

We thought about the decorations on the car, such as numbers, colours and designs.

Design

How is my car going to look? What features will it have? Where will the door and windows / windscreen be? How many wheels will it have and where will they be? 

Making

Once had designed our car, we than had a go at making it! We used lots of junk modelling materials and our cutting and joining skills to make our models. Once they were complete, we decorated them. 

Evaluation 

The children talked to their peers about the design they used, what they have built and how it works. Some children had created interiors for their cars as well as gadgets such as cameras, special buttons and extra doors. 

Spring 2 - Food and Nutrition

Making a Fruit Salad

Technical Knowledge

To start our session we looked at the different fruits we had to make our fruit salad with. We asked the children if they knew what the fruits were and if they had tried these before. 

We asked the children to think of different fruits to match the colours of the rainbow. We talked about how fruits have seeds inside them, such as apple pips, melon seeds or the stone inside a peach. 

We talked about how some of the fruit needs to be cut up so we can eat this safely. We spoke about how grapes need to be cut in half so we don't choke on them. 

Mrs Meakin showed the children how to use a sharp knife safely and how to keep their fingers safe and away from the blade. 

We started our session by washing our hands as we knew that they needed to be clean of dirt and germs before they handled the fruit. 

Design

The children talked all about the fruits they like and which they would choose for their own fruit salad as they were the consumer. We talked about how some people may like some fruits and others may not. 

The children had a think about which of the 6 fruits they would like to try in their fruit salad. 

Make

The children used their skills to carefully cut the strawberry tops off, peel the oranges and pick out the other pieces of fruit they wished to try. Mrs Meakin helped the children to cut the grapes in half lengthways and talked about how this was the safest way to eat a grape. 

Evaluate 

The children sat down and tried their fruit salads. They talked to their partners about which part was their favourite and which they didn't like (if any). As a class we talked about any other fruits they would have liked to add to their fruit salad. 

Spring 1 - Structures

Making a Junk Model Building

Technical Knowledge - Researching building types and structures

To start their project for creating a junk model of a building, the children explored different structures and buildings from around the world. They looked at features of a building, such as doors, windows, chimneys, roofs etc. The children talked about what type of building they would like to build and why, and how they could do this with the junk model materials they have available. 

The children were reminded of all the different types of joining techniques we had used in our previous projects and to think about which technique would be best for which material and reason. 

The children were also able to talk about how they may decorate their buildings, inside and out, and what they may wish to use.  

Design - Design your building 

The children were provided with design templates and asked to think about the purpose for their building, e.g. a home, a shop, police station, etc, and how the features will reflect this. 

The children used their sheets to map out their ideas and think about features and decorations. 

Make - Make your building

The children were given free choice of which materials they wished to use, but to use a cardboard box as a base for their building. The children freely chose where and how they would add windows, doors, roofs etc and were provided with support to cut flaps if they needed this. 

The children chose their joining methods for their different features, realising quickly that glue sticks wouldn't work for heavy features such as chimneys, so masking tape was required. 

Evaluation - How did you meet your design brief?

 The children looked back at their original designs and what there were asked to do with their design brief and commented on how well they had met their brief and if it looked the same or different to their original plans. The children were able to talk about how they had made their model and which techniques they had used and why.   

Autumn 2 - Textiles

Making a Sleeping Bag for Our Mice

Pre-teach - Looking at different joining materials 

Reception Class looked back at our previous learning using our floor book. We talked about the different joining methods we used when we made our ball and cup toy and which methods worked best, and which didn't work and why. 

We talked about masking tape, glue sticks, PVA glue and a stapler. We then considered other joining methods we knew, such as blu tack, paper clip and treasury tags. 

Technical Knowledge - What is a sleeping bag and what ways can we join the edges?

 The children watched a short video introducing a sleeping bag. We looked at two designs, a rectangular shape and a "mummy" shaped sleeping bag. We spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of each shape for our mice and how we could join the sides of the sleeping bag together. 

We considered that the bag may need to be opened up and closed again so we needed to think about a joining method that would allow this. 

The children knew that glue and staples wouldn't allow us to open the sleeping bag again, so we needed to think about another method. 

Mrs Meakin introduced Velcro and asked if any children had this on their shoes. The children talked about how they could open their show Velcro and then close it again and that this would be good for a sleeping bag. 

Design - What will our sleeping bag look like? 

The children designed their sleeping bag for their mouse, whilst considering the shape of sleeping bag they wanted (mummy-shape or rectangular) and the decoration they would use. The children carefully drew and coloured in their design to show which colours they wished to use. 

Make - Using the different joining techniques to make our sleeping bags

The children worked with Mrs Walsh to look at their design sheets and consider how they could make their sleeping bags using the felt squares. The children carefully folded the felt to make it a rectangular shape and then thought about how they would join the sides. The children recalled that Velcro would be a good way of doing this. 

Mrs Walsh introduced the two sides of the Velcro and explained they needed to use both for them to stick together. The children used the Velcro to stick the long sides together and then had to think about whether they needed to use it on another side. The children placed items in the bag and realised it fell out the bottom, so they sealed the bottom with Velcro too. 

They then looked at how to decorate the sleeping bag. They used PVA glue to stick sequins and buttons on as well as using felt tips to make different patterns to match their design. 

Evaluation - How well did it work? 

The children used their mice to see if the sleeping bags fitted the purpose and their target audience. The children also thought about how they may have adapted their design as they went along to improve the product or changed it to use the materials available. 

Autumn 1 

Toys Before Technology - Joining Materials

Pre-teach - Looking at toys from past and present and exploring how a ball and cup toy works. 

Reception Class explored some toys from over the years, looked at how they worked and how they compare to the toys they have now. 

We also watched a short video to show us some toys from the past, compared these to what we play with now and talked about which we would like to play with now. 

Technical Knowledge Part 1 (Discussion - part of the pre-teach) - What are the different methods of joining the materials we can choose? Which will work best on these materials 

We introduced the children to the ball and cup toy and explained they would be making their own. We considered the different ways in which we could join materials together and the methods and tools we already had in EYFS. The children identified we could use glue, a hot glue gun, sticky tape, staples, tying or sewing. 

We discussed the materials we had, which were a paper cup, some string and some tin foil, and discounted sewing. The children also said that the hot glue gun may be a little hard to use. 

The children were asked to talk with their talk partners about the way in which they think they would attach the string to the paper cup, ready for trying it out. 

Design - Design the cup for your toy, thinking about how you will make it unique and the colours you like

The children had a blank paper cup to start their toy with. They were able to talk about how they wished to decorate it, this could have been using colouring pens or pencils or by using the materials in the Creative Shed. We spoke about the colours they liked and how each cup could be different. 

The children who chose to use tissue paper to decorate this, thought about how to attach this to the cup and chose the glue sticks for this task. 

Make - Creating a simple ball and cup toy using tools such as scissors, glue sticks, masking tape and a stapler. 

The children started with their decorated cups from the previous session, and we started by talking about how they will make the ball using some tin foil. 

The children carefully used the scissors to cut a piece of foil off the roll and then considered how they would turn the sheet into a ball. We introduced "scrunch" when we talked about squeezing the foil into a ball. 

Technical Knowledge Part 2 (Experimenting) - What are the different methods of joining the materials we can choose? Which will work best on these materials

Once the children had talked through their options, we asked the children to explore four methods of joining the string to the foil. Glue sticks, masking tape, a stapler and tying the string. The children experimented with some or all of these methods before deciding on the one which worked the best. 

George tried the stapler first "This won't work, it's too hard to get the string on the foil."

Caoinmhe-Rho, "I've tried the glue, but it won't stick as the ball is too heavy."

Jacob, "The tape works best, it is the stickiest."

Evaluate - How well does the toy work? Does the string stay attached when we swing it? 

When our toys were finished, we tried these out. We swung the ball to see if we could get it into the cup. If the string stayed in, we knew it had worked. If it came away, we revisited our design and tried another joining technique or tried to reinforce the join with further tape. 

Last updated May 2023