Year 5 - Cam Toys
In Year 5 the children learn about controlling movement with a cam mechanism as part of a simple toy. The purpose of the toy is decided by the children. They develop their designing skills by using information sources to generate ideas and formulate an understanding of how cam mechanisms can be used to produce movement. They extend their making skills by developing techniques in cutting, shaping and joining to combine components and by selecting tools and equipment to measure and cut accurately. Through these activities they gain an understanding of the working characteristics of the materials and components and how they can be combined to create more useful properties. They consider both functional and decorative attributes in a finished product.
Year 6 - Bridges
In D&T Year 6 have been looking at structures and what makes them stable or un-stable. Initially the children were given a challenge to build a structure that would hold at least 1 kg using 30 straws and pins. Following on from the challenge the children began to concentrate on bridge design and bridge building. Using K'Nex the children built seven different types of bridge and learned about their construction and capability.
The final challenge will be to design and build a prototype bridge that will span a river estuary over 500mm wide. The prototype bridge must allow two lanes of traffic and a single lane for pedestrians.
The Challenge!
Bridge Building Using K'Nex
Year 6 - Hand Puppets
In Literacy, Year 6 researched Fables and, as part of their work, they had to write their own fables. Further developing this idea the children then went on to design their own hand puppets in Design Technology so that they could then perform their fable to children lower down the school.