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Desk Tidy (Lower Key Stage 2)

Design Brief: Design and make a Desk Tidy to store all those ‘easy to lose’ desk items.
Strand of Learning: Materials & Structures
Overview: In this unit of work children learn about shell structures and how different three-dimensional containers can be joined together to form a desk tidy. Children apply their knowledge of creating shell structures, computer-aided design, and recycling practices to create a desk tidy for themselves to use at home or at school. They learn how papier mâché techniques of adding layers can be used to stiffen and strengthen shell structures. Using a range of recycled materials, children create a desk tidy product and use a range of decorative techniques to create a quality product. Children learn how to use posters and how the functions of products can be used to market and advertise a product.

Gallery

Images from the Lesson Presentation Slides

  • 6 x Lesson Presentation Slides

  • Food Packaging Template

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Medium Term Planning includes:

  • 6 x lesson overviews

  • Vocabulary List

  • Learning statements linked to Curriculum

  • Support and Challenge

  • Assessment - Keeping up with the curriculum

Teaching Pack

Curriculum Scope and Sequence

Substantive & Technical Knowledge

Pupils should know:

  • The difference between a design brief and design specifications.

  • Design specifications describe how a product should be made, how it works or what it should do.

  • There can be a range of people and places that can be clients for a product.

  • How computer-aided design software can help in the design process.

  • The properties of materials that they are working with and how these determine the tools and techniques that they use.

  • That a list of the main stages of turning a design into a product will aid the making process.

  • Design specifications are a list of success criteria for the product.

  • When evaluating products, it is important to use the design brief and the design specifications as a guide.

 

Materials

  • That products are made of materials that are chosen because of their properties.

Structures

  • Whether a structure is a frame structure or a shell structure

  • Suitable techniques to strengthen materials.

  • Suitable techniques of making structures more stable.

Practical Knowledge (skills)

Children will know how to:

Designing Skills

  • Generate ideas for a product, considering its purpose and who the client is.

  • Design a product that meets client’s needs and the design brief.

  • Use design specifications as a guide to the making process.

Drawing Skills

  • Use computer software to show what their final product will look like.

  • Follow instructions to ensure that they work safely.

  • Select suitable tools, equipment, materials, and components for the task.

  • Explain their choices of materials, techniques and tools when making a product.

  • Measure, mark out, cut and shape materials with increasing accuracy.

  • Select and apply a finishing technique to create a quality product.

  • Identify the characteristics of a design which makes the product useful and successful.

  • List the ways in which a finished product meets the design specifications. 

 

Materials

  • Measure, mark-out, cut and shape a wide range of materials.

  • Cut internal shapes and joining slots in sheet materials.

  • Join and combine materials and components using a variety of methods.

  • Manipulate different materials to create different effects by cutting, creasing, and folding.

Structures

  • Choose suitable materials, techniques, and tools to construct or repair products.

  • Apply a range of techniques to create shell structures using paper.

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