EYFS

Topics

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Ourselves

Day & Night

Space

Homes and Buildings

Growing

Habitats

Vocabulary

crates

blocks

bricks

Duplo

junk-modelling

join

stick

fold

Sellotape

glue

masking tape

tie

wrap

hole punch

elastic bank

treasury tag

paper clip

cube

cuboid

cone

clay

cutter

pattern

roll

flatten

marks

tealight

paint

brush

rollers

cutters

screwdriver

spanner

tape measure

sand

water

drainpipe

bucket

tube

stand

spade

sieve

roof

walls

door

Key knowledge and Skills

EYFS

ELGs - Expressive Arts & Design

Media & Materials

They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Imagination

Children use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes.

They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology.

Activities

In the Early Years progress in designing and making comes from a combination of independent and adult-led activities.

In our Nursery and Reception both indoors and outdoors a wide variety of resources is available to the children, enabling them to develop their skills and creativity.

• Small-scale construction e.g. duplo.
• Large scale construction e.g. crates, wooden blocks.
• Role play with real tools e.g. screwdriver.
• Well stocked creative areas e.g. junk modelling.
• Joining materials e.g. glue, sellotape, masking tape, elastic bands, paper clips etc.
• Tools e.g. scissors, hole punch, brushes rollers, rolling pins.
• Playdough and cutters.
• Outdoor large-scale sand and water play with equipment to build mechanisms for movement.
• Range of existing products e.g. phones, tills kitchen equipment.
• ICT – Clevertouch & Computers – to access age appropriate software.

In EYFS children begin to talk about what they are doing and suggest alternatives. 

Examples of adult-led activities in Nursery:

• Decorate a photo frame to take home.
• Design a party hat to wear at the Christmas Party.
• Design a dress for Cinderella.
• Design a house for a doll or teddy.

Examples of adult-led activities in Reception:

• Design a rocket to take Teddy to the moon.  Provide a range of boxes of varying sizes and resources to attach and join.
• Use 3D shapes to make a rocket.
• Design a home for one of the Three Little Pigs. Evaluate how strong it is.
• Design a Mother’s Day clay tealight holder using quick dry clay.

Year One

Topics

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Islands

Penguin Small

Toys

Cars

Once Upon a Time

Vocabulary

spring

zig-zag

fan

snake

giraffe

crocodile

fish

axle

wheel

turn

smoothly

wood

straw

metal

bottle tops

felt

puppet

stitch

embroidery

design

evaluate

Names of stitches.

Key knowledge and Skills

KS1

Design

Design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users bases on design criteria.

Generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through talking, drawing, templates, mock-ups and, where appropriate, information and communication technology.

Make

Select from and use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks e.g. cutting, shaping, joining and finishing.

Select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their characteristics.

Evaluate

Explore and evaluate a range of existing products.

Evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria.

Technical Knowledge

Build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable.

Explore and use mechanisms e.g. levers, sliders, wheels and axles in their products.

Activities

Design a Slinky puppet for your friend to play with

• Look at slinky dog in Toy Story and discuss the way the middle of the dog moves as it is a spring.
• All children make a slinky using a zig-zag fan mechanism.
• Design their own animal with a long neck e.g. snake, giraffe using the same technique.
• Evaluate if it works as well as slinky dog.

Design a Plastic Bottle Car using axles

• Look at where axles are in cars i.e. one at the front one at the back.
• Decide where to make the holes for the axles.
• Attach the bottle tops for the wheels.
• Test the car
• What would make the wheels work more smoothly e.g. try wooden axle and cardboard wheels.

Design a felt puppet character to use in a puppet show for your friend

• Use a template design sheet to select felt colour and design of the face and body.
• Giving the puppet a name and character
• Choose the colour to sew it together.
• Follow the design to make the puppet.
• Evaluate the puppet by comparing it to the design and see if it turned out the way it was imagined.
• Would you change anything.
• Use in a puppet show for friends.

Thrilling Thursday - Textiles

Design and make a place mat

• Draw a simple design and make colour choices before begin sewing.
• Learn stitches.
• Compare to original design of mat.

Year Two

Topics

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Time Travellers

Night-Time

Explorers

Vocabulary

Tudor

wood

plaster

glass

hinge

door

window

roof

box

open

close

strong

weak

stiffen

strengthen

join

Sellotape

glue

masking tape

elastic band

habitat

jungle

park

underwater etc

fish

animal names

wheel

rotate

split pin

hole punch

working part

moving part

lever

up

down

side to side

slide

push

pull

packaging

product

ingredients

photo

illustration

Key knowledge and Skills

KS1

Design

Design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users bases on design criteria.

Generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through talking, drawing, templates, mock-ups and, where appropriate, information and communication technology.

Make

Select from and use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks e.g. cutting, shaping, joining and finishing.

Select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their characteristics.

Evaluate

Explore and evaluate a range of existing products.

Evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria.

Technical Knowledge

Build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable.

Explore and use mechanisms e.g. levers, sliders, wheels and axles in their products.

Activities

Design their own Tudor house with an opening door and/or window.

• Learn about Tudor homes and what building materials were used.
• Compare to how we build now.
• Make a design on paper before they begin and list the materials they are going to use.
• A simple design could be made using ICT software such as Colour Magic.
• Make a mock-up of a hinge before they begin e.g. simple hinge using a strip of paper or other idea.
• Once built evaluate it against design – has it turned out as expected – does the door window hinge work as you thought it would. 
• Assess if the structure was strong enough and if not how could it have been improved.

Design and make a shoe box habitat with one moving part.

• Examples of moving parts could be rotating disc or lever to make part of the design go up and down, sliding mechanism to make part of the design move from one place to another.
• Look at examples of moving parts in books and toys.
• Use a design sheet to draw, list materials and decide on what will move in their habitat.
• Select and build following design.
• Evaluate the finished habitat against the original design, suggesting any improvements.

Design packaging for their pizza including what type, a picture or photo and the ingredients.

• Look at examples of pizza packaging available to buy.
• What do they have in common?
• Use card to make the simple wrap around packaging.

Thrilling Thursday - Textiles

Design and make a pencil case

• Draw what they want it to look like – choose colours and type of embroidery stiches to be used.
• Use knowledge of type of stitch.
• When finished fold and join by sewing the to make the pencil case
• Evaluate it against original design.