Designing and making is one of the most fun areas of the curriculum to provide for. Children often need no encouragement to make objects, put together materials and use new tools. They also enjoy opportunities to get cooking, and of course tasting!
As a curriculum area it can give children endless learning opportunities.
Gill Hesletine, a Foundation Stage teacher in Bexhill, explains, 'In my classroom, I find that children gain huge amounts of confidence and independence from exploring and using the materials we put out for them.
They are also using fine motor skills and so are getting their hands ready for writing.'
As well as giving children opportunities to develop independence, designing and making can link successfully into role play. Karen Murphy, a Foundation Stage consultant in Cleethorpes, says, 'Designing and making items for role play gives children a sense of ownership over their play. There is also an interesting link between fantasy and reality. Building structures with Lego that then go into the shop or home corner means children can actually plan their play and live through it.'
Karen also believes this is one area of the curriculum that allows blurring between different types of play and activities. 'Children do not see their world according to learning intentions and curriculum areas. I see designing and making as one way in which we can create fluidity in children's play and learning.'
So what type of tools and materials work best? On this point Pat Everett, regional manager for Bright Horizons Family Solutions, is emphatic. 'Like adults, children need the right tools for the right job. Scissors that do not cut teach children about frustration and powerlessness. This means that we need to provide children with a broad range of options so that they can use what they need to construct and follow through their ideas.'
Pat also believes that children have to learn to explore materials.
'Ideally we need to give children a broad range of options so that they can find out for themselves what works. There are different types of sticky tape, but children need to see that some tape is harder to paint over.
Children can learn about materials if they are given the opportunities and the odd helpful suggestion.'
The need sometimes to stand back and simply provide opportunities is echoed by Gill Hesletine. 'Children actually like it more if they are just given materials and are allowed to find out for themselves what they can do.
Sometimes they may come to a table with a set idea in mind, but at other times it's the materials themselves that provide the trigger for them.'
This is not to say that adults do not have a significant role in designing and making. Gill says, 'As well as encouraging children to just "have a go", I will also spend some time sitting at a table just playing with paper or materials with a group of children. We may see if we can scrunch it up or fold it and through asking questions and modelling some skills, children are able to develop their own ideas.'
Finally, we should not forget that cooking can come into its own here. The old approach of 'two stirs, a lick and take your apron off' has disappeared. Designing and making is about helping children to make choices. Making sandwiches and salads is an ideal way of doing this, as children can choose fillings and be involved from start to finish with the process, including the tasting. One day, who knows, the four-year-old you are working with may become the next Jamie Oliver!
