Moving pictures

Year 1

Age 5-6 years

Fully updated 2021

Moving pictures are popular with children and by making simple sliders and levers children will gain an understanding of the mechanisms that make things move. This encourages children to recognise and learn about different types of movement through investigating mechanisms in everyday objects and designing and making a moving model to illustrate a story or as a card or display.

Children develop their designing skills through trying out ideas with materials to make a mock up before developing and drawing a design and planning their making. Making skills include techniques in cutting, shaping and joining to combine components, and by selecting tools and equipment to measure and cut accurately. This helps them gain an understanding of the working characteristics of the materials and components and how they can be combined to create different properties. Both the functional and decorative attributes in a finished product are considered, thinking about the user and purpose of their model.

There are strong links to Literacy with opportunities for developing skills in speaking and listening in groups and pairs, through discussion when deciding upon the design, following and giving instructions, and developing design ideas. This helps them to extend their technical vocabulary and gain confidence in speaking and in effective communication of design ideas and in evaluating the effectiveness of the outcome.