This week we have been developing our skills in design and construction. Our mission is to create a moon buggy for Bob. Bob is the man on the moon and he has the task of cleaning the moon every day, showing visitors around and keeping an eye out for pesky aliens!

The children looked at images of real space buggies first of all, and decided what elements were important and how they could ‘magpie’ those ideas for their own design.

Next, we looked at the work of the artist Gianluca Gimini, who asked people to draw pictures of bikes from memory. He then constructed the bikes exactly the way they had been drawn. This promoted lots of discussion about the importance of considering your design and how you will build it afterwards.

Then, they drew their designs, paying attention to where Bob would keep his vaccum cleaner, his souvenir stand and (most importantly) his lunch box for when he has a picnic with his friends who work on other planets.

On Monday, the children explored ways to make axles that ensured the wheels could turn. There was lots of perseverance and adaptation taking place as they trialled how to use the resources to the best effect. Not everyone was successful at first and they appreciated the benefits of team work.

On Thursday, we got out all of our construction toys to make prototypes of their moon buggies. They may not match their designs closely but it was lots of fun and helped them to understand shape, space and measure, as well as the limitations of some toys. For example, when they wanted to create a satellite dish and attach it to the buggy.

Friday is the day that we are making our final models. We hope to show you some of the photographs on our blog next week.

P.S. We have spent some time with our reading buddies in Year 5 this week. Please take a look at their blog to see some photos of the lovely time we had reading in the sunshine!