Design and Technology Newsletter
The children of St Stephen’s became puppeteers for DT Day this week. The children used recycling, paint, string, sticks, paper plates, cups and a whole lot of imagination to make some amazing puppets! From Reception to Year 6, the children thought about characters either from stories, non fiction or pure imagination to inspire their designs.
In Reception, the children made lolly pop stick space themed puppets, inspired by Mae Jemison the first Black women to travel into space. The children enjoyed embellishing their space puppets with a range of different resources. They also designed space back drops with a slot to slide their puppet through to put on a puppet show!
In Year 1, they made animal puppets inspired by their current English book Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion. Using paper plates, paint, card, and sticks we made puppet crocodiles, monkeys, giraffes and hippos. The children were putting their art and design skills to good use – sharing their design ideas and drawing them, marking and cutting, gluing and painting! They thought about the purpose of their puppets and how they could use our puppets to retell a part of their book.
The Year 2s, started the day by thinking about the power of puppets to tell stories and communicate messages. The children then decided what story or message they wanted to tell with their puppet before starting to draw up their own design. The children were given a wide selection of materials to choose from. After using their skills of marking, cutting, joining and shaping (using pipe cleaners) the children had themselves a ‘pop up’ puppet with moving arms!
In Year 3, the children worked with recycled materials (cardboard, plastic bottles, lids etc) to create puppets inspired by the topics we have studied during our first half term together. The children designed their puppets before beginning, ordering the steps they would have to take to make their creation. The children were given paper straws, woollen yarn, pipe cleaners and sticky tabs to work with alongside their recycling. They made a lot of mess but by the end of the day had created fabulous marionette style puppets!
In Year 3 the children were inspired by their work on Anglo Saxons work and Beowulf. The children either created creatures of Norse legend such as trolls, dragons or giants or created puppets of Norse warriors or horses. They used cardboard tubes, egg cartons, string, wool, paint plus anything that was lying around to make their creations. They designed their puppets first in their D & T books before making decisions to either paint their puppet or use fabric or card to cover the ‘bodies’ of their piece. Finally they used the sticks and string to attach the puppet into a movable character. It was challenging but fun and the children produced some excellent pieces.
Whilst Year 5 Blackman focused on cycling and their amazing school assembly, Year 5 Silverstein, created four-string puppets inspired by their English unit: Aliens. The children had lots of fun designing their own aliens using kitchen roll and coloured card, which they then attached to a bamboo grip using string. It was a challenge tying all the knots (and keeping them untangled) but the children persevered and ended up making fabulous puppets with moving arms! Year 5 Blackman have all the fun to come…
Today was DT Day where we got the chance to explore our creative skills and design our very own puppets! In Year 6, we made string puppets, linked to our History topic: The Ancient Greeks. We used our design skills to come up with a suitable string puppet creation and using recycled materials, we created the final piece. By the end of the day we had some fantastic creations that could be moved using different strings
