• Design Museum - The Design Museum has several exciting ideas of things to design and make at home. The website includes videos and worksheets to guide your child through the activities.

• Smallpeice Trust - The Smallpeice Trust share 20 fantastic engineering ideas to try at home, ranging from a rubber band car challenge to a robot challenge, these challenges are sure to inspire your child.

• BBC Good Food - Get kids practicing their skills in the kitchen with our easy, no-cook recipes. Make a batch of fruity snacks, sweet treats or savoury sandwiches

• KS2 Design and Technology

• BBC Bitesize - Design and Technology

• Talking Textiles - The Children's University

• BP Educational Resources

• Fun Kids Learn

“Design and technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Using creativity and imagination, pupils design and make products that solve real and relevant problems within a variety of contexts, considering their own and others’ needs, wants and values. They acquire a broad range of subject knowledge and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. Pupils learn how to take risks, becoming resourceful, innovative, enterprising and capable citizens. Through the evaluation of past and present design and technology, they develop a critical understanding of its impact on daily life and the wider world. High-quality design and technology education makes an essential contribution to the creativity, culture, wealth and well-being of the nation.”

National Curriculum 2013

It is clear that Design and Technology is all around us and it is important to help our children become aware of this.  There are many ways you can support your child with their knowledge and understanding of Design and Technology both in the school environment and the wider world.

 

Ideas to support your child - Food and nutrition

Cooking together

Try cooking together at home, the recipes on the following websites are great!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/10_easy_recipes_for_kids

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/learning_the_basis_for_kids

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/baking_with_children

 

Eat well plate 

Try to help your child understand the basics of nutrition by looking at the Eatwell plate. 

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/

The following website gives more information on healthy eating and offers a range of healthy recipes and gives advice on how to make healthier choices.

https://www.nhs.uk/change4life

 

Play Come Dine with Me!

Try playing come dine with me at home.  Each family member could make a different course, you could give each course a score out of ten – the winner doesn’t have to do the washing up!

 

Understanding Seasonality

Research which foods are in season.  Look with your child during your food shop, can you make healthy choices based on the foods which are currently in season?  Research how seasonality makes a difference to the food we eat. 

 

Food tasting 

Try a tasting session at home – can you and your family guess the ingredients in the food?  Which ingredients do you like the best?

 

Suggesting healthy menus

As a family, take turns in designing healthy menus.  Can you all contribute and come up with a week’s worth of healthy meals to enjoy together?

 

Adapting recipes

Have a look at your child’s favourite meal.  Ask them if they could find a way to adapt the recipe to make it healthier.

 

Food and Nutrition websites

https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/remote-learning/activities-and-ideas/

https://www.farmvention.com

 

Ideas to support your child - Designing and Making

Junk modelling 

Use junk around the home to design and create models.

 

Lego / building blocks 

The possibilities are endless when it comes to designing and making with Lego and building blocks!

 

Fashion designing 

Use a sketch book to create a variety of clothing designs.  You could challenge your child to design a wardrobe to suit a particular purpose, for example a trip you are going on.  Encourage them to think about what they are designing carefully, will it keep someone warm or cool, which materials would they use and why?  Why have they chosen particular colours or patterns?

 

Adapting old clothing 

If you have any old clothing at home, why not challenge your child to adapt it by adding extra material and stitching.  Thy could sew on extra buttons or sequins or turn and old pair of jeans into shorts!

 

Design and make a den

This could be an activity for the whole family, or just for your child.  Challenge them to create a den.  Give them a design brief detailing what the Den’s purpose is.  Is it a Den for outside to create shade in the summer to keep cool?  Or is it a den for inside where you can sit with a blanket and read your favourite book?  Should there be room for one person, or more?  Once the design work is complete, your child can get to work – they could either make a small model or a life size version to use themselves!

 

Recognising Design and Technology around the home

Ask your child to look around their home at the products they can see.  Ask them what they think the purpose of the product is?  What does it do?  Who is for? How do they think it was made?  Which materials have been used?  Which aspects work well?  If you could improve this product, what would you do and how?

We hope you enjoy taking part in these activities at home with your children.  Please share any photos of fun activities you have tried at home with the school or any extra DT ideas you may have.

Through a variety of creative and practical activities, pupils will be taught the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage in an iterative process of designing and making. 

By the end of Year 6, children will be able to:

 

Design 

• Use research and develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups
• Generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches, cross-sectional and exploded diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer-aided design

 

Make

• Select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks [for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing], accurately
• Select from and use a wider range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their functional properties and aesthetic qualities

 

Evaluate

• Investigate and analyse a range of existing products
• Evaluate their ideas and products against their own design criteria and consider the views of others to improve their work
• Understand how key events and individuals in design and technology have helped shape the world

 

Technical knowledge

• Apply their understanding of how to strengthen, stiffen and reinforce more complex structures
• Understand and use mechanical systems in their products [for example, gears, pulleys, cams, levers and linkages]
• Understand and use electrical systems in their products [for example, series circuits incorporating switches, bulbs, buzzers and motors]
• Apply their understanding of computing to program, monitor and control their products.

 

Cooking and Nutrition  

As part of their work with food, pupils will be taught how to cook and apply the

principles of nutrition and healthy eating. Instilling a love of cooking in pupils will also open

a door to one of the great expressions of human creativity. Learning how to cook is a

crucial life skill that enables pupils to feed themselves and others affordably and well, now

and in later life.

 

By the end of Year 6, children will be able to:

• Understand and apply the principles of a healthy and varied diet
• Prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques
• Understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.