This half term Giraffes and Bears have been excited to design, explore and build structures working toward building our own Tudor house, linking to our work in History on the Great Fire of London.
We started by thinking about what a structure is:
‘something that has been built(the parts joined in an ordered and structured way’.
We looked at some famous buildings and considered the terms strong (the material is not easily broken and can hold some weight), stiff ( the material does not bend easily) and stable (any changes to the material are very slow), thinking in particular what joining techniques were used.
Our first challenge was to create a bridge to hold a weight (a pen) and to use card as well as joining techniques previously learnt; glue, treasury tags, tape, split pins etc…
We worked as a team trying to make our structure as strong, stable and stiff as possible ready for them to be tested. We sat in a circle ready for our structures to be tested…there were varying degrees of success! We learnt a lot about the best joining techniques and how folding and rolling card can strengthen the structure.
We went onto explore different materials and were given the challenge to create a replica of Big Ben using either; cling film, cardboard, paper, tin foil or card.
Again the children worked in teams. We evaluated these different materials in terms of them being strong, stiff and stable at the end of our lesson. We decided that cling film was the least strong material and that cardboard was the best for building a structure that is strong, stiff and stable.
Over the following weeks we focused on Tudor housing and recreated the wattle and daub effect by weaving card and straws.
This week we have designed our Tudor houses, thinking particularly of the different features:
thick beams
tall chimney
triangular, steep roof
black and white
black window frames.
In our design we considered the different materials we would use. We can’t wait to start making our Tudor structures next week!
How you can help at home:
Look around Bushey and Watford and see if you can spot any Tudor style houses (particularly around the Tudor Estate). Ensure children understand that many of these are not original Tudor houses but replicas. St Alban’s has a rich history with many original buildings