Our topic this term has been Explorers. We have been exploring our school grounds and using maps to explore as part of our geography learning. We have studied famous explorers in the past and became particularly interested in Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong so decided to delve deeper into finding out more about their lives, comparing their two lives and the exploring they did as our history learning. 

Our learning about Neil Armstrong sparked an interest in space so I read the children one of my favourite books called ‘Man on the Moon (a day in the life of Bob)’ by Simon Bartram.

Then I challenged the children to design and make a moon buggy which would help Bob do his job on the moon! Firstly the children investigated some cars and vehicles looking at how they’d been made. They compared these to photos we looked at of moon buggies and discussed differences. The children decided a moon buggy would need big wheels with wide tyres to travel on the moon’s surface. 

After the children investigated how wheels move on a vehicle by making vehicles with a variety of different construction toys to help them in the decisions they might make when drawing and deciding the design of their vehicle.

Then the children used their designs and made their moon buggies. I was very impressed with the way the children focused on the detail of their design and made Bob’s cleaning equipment (brushes, mops, hoover, cloths), the souvenirs and thought about Bob the character their product was for. Some children made him a cushion for his seat, some made him a newspaper to read - he is a lucky astronaut!

Finally the children evaluated their designs and thought about what they liked and disliked about their design. They also looked closely at how their finished product met their design criteria and how well it would meet Bob’s needs.

DT moon buggy