Enabling Environments: Around the nursery - Technology Workshop - Assembly lines

Provision in the technology workshop should enable children to work independently and creatively to design, assemble and join. For children to develop confidence and competency in this area, they need continuous access to a range of tools and materials. Practitioners should also offer appropriate support in order to help children to acquire necessary skills and to learn and explore useful techniques.

RESOURCES

Settings should aim to provide:

- aprons

- open shelving; trolleys housing trays or baskets; practical storage containers - for example, transparent plastic jars, baskets and boxes, larger floor standing baskets, large container (for cardboard boxes, etc), a table (at child standing height and large enough for children to work collaboratively), washable table covering

- paper and card of varying thicknesses and finishes, foil, cellophane

- a range of fabric pieces

- threads, such as ribbon, wool, cord

- offcuts of wood, wooden lolly sticks, lengths of dowel (guard against splinters or sharp edges becoming a safety issue)

- cardboard tubes, rolled-up newspaper, art straws

- plastic containers (for example, drinks bottles, margarine and yoghurt pots), plastic lids

- natural materials - for example, shells, twigs and cork

- different types of glue - for example, PVA, glue sticks, paste (non-fungicidal) and glue spreaders

- tape, such as Sellotape, masking tape, parcel tape

- scissors

- Treasury tags and paper clips

- hole punches

- mark-making tools, sticky labels, folded card labels, clipboards.

EXPERIENCES

In this area, children might enjoy:

- exploring materials and experimenting with techniques

- joining and fastening objects and materials together

- making models and constructions

- making props to support imaginative and role play

- discussing plans and ideas with adults and peers

- making lists and plans on paper.

LEARNING

The learning that might take place in this area includes:

- using appropriate senses to find out about materials

- using talk to organise and clarify thinking

- selecting appropriate tools and techniques for a task

- designing with an idea or purpose in mind

- expressing creative ideas using a range or mixture of media

- using tools appropriately and safely

- writing for a purpose

- using simple mathematical language to describe size, length and shape

- using everyday language to describe position

- using number names and counting skills

- using developing mathematical ideas and methods to find solutions to practical problems.

ORGANISATION AND LOCATION

- Build into your planning enough time for adults to work with the children in the area, taking an interest in what they are doing, working alongside them and modelling ideas and skills. The technology area can offer an ideal context for adult and child to engage in sustained shared thinking about ideas and intentions.

- This area can be very high maintenance, and practitioners may find it difficult to ensure that supply meets demand! Parents and carers are often very helpful providers of recycled materials for modelling. Make sure you have in place clear systems for collecting materials, and check all items for safety (for example, no medicine packets, no sharp edges, no unwashed yoghurt pots). Packaging such as cereal boxes can be flattened to save space. It can be effective in the organisation of provision to designate a member of staff with responsibility for monitoring the area. This person would check the area daily and replenish stocks as required.

- Storage containers should be clearly marked for both children and adults. A photograph accompanied by words is usually an effective form of labelling. Where containers are thrown away regularly (for example, glue pots), the label can be displayed on the shelf. Shape silhouettes can also be helpful in establishing consistent places for tools or containers of materials.

- Flooring should be practical. It will need to be swept regularly and it may be subjected to spilt glue, so carpet would be inadvisable.

- Inviting parents to spend time working alongside their child in the technology area can lead to exciting shared learning. Parents may decide to provide some similar tools and materials for children at home.

- As they make connections in their learning, and seek to extend their ideas, children will probably need to link with provision in other areas. Locating the technology workshop near to the paint area will offer children additional opportunities for developing their work.

- A display area should be provided for finished models and work 'in progress'. Children should be encouraged to label their work and to respect the work of others.

- Clothing will need to be protected and children should be encouraged to put on an apron as they enter the area. It is a good idea to explain to parents and carers that children will be engaging in messy activities at nursery and that 'best' clothes may not be appropriate. Aprons should be washable, flexible to allow for movement as children work and easy for them to put on. They can also be used to monitor the number of children working in the area - for example, when all four aprons are in use, the area is full.

OUTDOOR PROVISION

Children should be offered opportunities for designing and making, both indoors and outdoors. Outside, similar tools and materials can be provided to those found in the indoor technology workshop, but opportunities for working on a larger scale, perhaps collaboratively, should also be made available.

Materials such as large cardboard boxes (often available from supermarkets), packaging and large cardboard tubes (such as those found in the centre of rolls of carpet) can be used to build castles, petrol stations or space rockets. Large-scale sculptures, for example of dinosaurs or dragons, can be made from layers of papier mache covering a rolled-up newspaper 'skeleton', and hidden around the outdoor area. Large models and constructions could be painted using decorators' brushes and paint mixed in large paint pots.

Jane Drake is a children's centre teacher for Leeds

LINKS TO EYFS GUIDANCE
- UC 1.1 Child Development
- PR 2.2 Parents as Partners
- PR 2.3 Supporting Learning
- L&D 4.1 Play and exploration
- L&D 4.2 Active learning
- L&D 4.3 Creativity and critical thinking