As part of our topic ‘Explorers’ and as part of our English learning reading stories by the same author we have been reading the marvellous books by the artist and author Simon Bartram. We have been enjoying Dougal’s Deep-Sea Diary, Bob The Man on The Moon, Bob and his Best Ever Friend Ever and Bob’s lunar adventures in chapter books. We love the stories and stunning illustrations in all of his books, but we focused our DT learning on a challenge around  Bob who’s job it is to work on the moon cleaning it and giving guided tours to tourists.

I set the children a challenge … Can you make a vehicle for Bob to use on the moon? It must be able to carry his cleaning equipment and have a space for Barry his dog too. 

To begin with they put their initial thoughts on paper and drew a design developing their ideas as they went along. Then the children had to think about the materials and equipment they would need. We learnt about wheels and axels, looked closely at toy cars and how their wheels and axels worked and were positioned.

We looked at different attachment techniques (flange, L brace, tabs, fold, tie, slot) to create standing walls (to separate Bob’s cleaning supplies from the driving seat), gathered all our materials and then began making. The children adapted and altered ideas and dealt with challenges well (axels falling off, re measuring card to make things fit) and evaluated their final designs at the end.

I am really impressed by all the different skills they used and their creativity, we have moving vehicles that have beds for Barry, windows, steering wheels, bins for the rubbish from the moon, sinks for Bob to wash his hands in and lots more! Some children decided their vehicles were more of a camper van than a work vehicle.


LS DT Designing and Making

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LS DT Finished Vehicles