Year 3 Design and Technology Resources
Explore ready-to-teach Year 3 DT lesson plans, resources, activities and projects for teaching Design and Technology in Year 3. Our practical schemes of work help children develop their designing, making and evaluating skills while exploring structures, mechanical systems, textiles, cooking and nutrition, and a range of materials and techniques. Each project is designed to support the Year 3 DT curriculum and make planning engaging Design and Technology lessons simple.
Popular Year 3 DT Schemes of Work:
What should children learn in Year 3 Design and Technology?
Year 3 Design and Technology builds on children’s KS1 experience by introducing more challenging design problems, materials, tools and technical knowledge. Children should investigate existing products, develop and communicate purposeful ideas, select suitable materials and components, use tools with increasing accuracy, and evaluate how effectively their finished products meet their design criteria.
Develop more detailed design ideas
Encourage children to identify the purpose and intended user of a product, gather relevant information and develop ideas using annotated sketches, diagrams, models and design criteria. They should begin to explain why particular design choices are appropriate.
Use tools and materials with greater accuracy
Give children opportunities to select appropriate tools, materials and components and use them with increasing precision. Year 3 DT projects can develop skills in measuring, cutting, shaping, joining, assembling and finishing different materials.
Build technical knowledge
Help children investigate how structures, mechanisms and other systems work before applying this understanding to their own designs. They can explore stronger and more stable structures alongside mechanical systems such as levers, linkages, cams, gears or pulleys where appropriate.
Evaluate designs and develop cooking skills
Encourage children to test and evaluate products against their original design criteria and identify ways to improve them. Cooking and nutrition projects can also develop food preparation skills while introducing healthy eating, seasonality and where different ingredients come from.
Explore our Year 3 DT Resources
Browse our complete collection of Year 3 Design and Technology resources, lesson plans and schemes of work. Discover engaging Year 3 DT activities and projects covering structures, mechanical systems, textiles, cooking and nutrition, with ready-to-teach lessons designed to develop children’s designing, making, evaluating and technical skills and support the Year 3 DT curriculum.
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Planning Year 3 Design and Technology
When planning Design and Technology in Year 3, give children opportunities to tackle increasingly challenging design problems through purposeful practical projects. Year 3 DT activities can include exploring structures, mechanical systems, textiles, cooking and nutrition, whilst helping children develop greater confidence and accuracy when selecting and using appropriate tools, materials, components and techniques.
Encourage children to investigate and evaluate existing products, identify the needs of a particular user and develop their own ideas using annotated sketches, diagrams, models and design criteria. As they make, children can develop skills in measuring, cutting, shaping, joining, assembling and finishing before testing and evaluating their finished products and identifying possible improvements. Revisiting the design, make and evaluate process across different Year 3 Design and Technology projects helps children develop creativity, independence and technical understanding while supporting the KS2 DT curriculum.
Planning Design and Technology for your whole school? Explore our DT Curriculum Packs →Frequently Asked Questions about Year 3 Design and Technology
What is taught in Year 3 Design and Technology?
In Year 3 Design and Technology, children build on the designing, making and evaluating skills developed at KS1. They should investigate existing products, identify the needs of users, develop and communicate their own design ideas, select suitable tools and materials, make purposeful products and evaluate how successfully their designs meet their original criteria.
What does the Year 3 DT curriculum include?
Year 3 is part of the KS2 Design and Technology curriculum. Across KS2, children should develop skills in designing and making products for particular users and purposes, use a wider range of tools and materials accurately, evaluate products and develop their technical knowledge. They should also learn about cooking and nutrition, including healthy diets, seasonality and where ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.
What are some good Year 3 DT activities?
Year 3 DT activities should give children a meaningful design problem to solve rather than simply asking them to make a predetermined object. Projects might involve designing a structure for a particular purpose, creating a product incorporating a mechanical system, making a textile product or preparing food for a particular user or occasion.
What technical knowledge should children develop in Year 3 DT?
Children should begin developing a deeper understanding of how structures, mechanisms and other systems work. This can include investigating how structures can be strengthened and reinforced and exploring mechanical systems such as levers, linkages, gears, pulleys and cams. The exact content taught in Year 3 will depend on how a school sequences its KS2 DT curriculum.
What designing skills should Year 3 children develop?
Children should begin to research and consider the needs of the people who will use their products. They can generate and develop ideas using discussion, annotated sketches, diagrams, prototypes and models, and establish design criteria to help guide their work. They should also begin to make more informed decisions about materials, components and construction techniques.
What making skills should be taught in Year 3 DT?
Year 3 children should develop greater accuracy and independence when measuring, marking out, cutting, shaping, joining, assembling and finishing materials. They should learn to choose appropriate tools, materials and components for a particular task and explain some of the choices they make during the making process.
How should children evaluate their DT projects in Year 3?
Children should evaluate both existing products and their own designs. During a project, they can test ideas and make changes where necessary. Once a product is complete, children should consider how successfully it meets its design criteria, identify strengths and weaknesses and suggest practical improvements.
What cooking and nutrition can be taught in Year 3?
Year 3 cooking and nutrition projects can develop children's understanding of a healthy and varied diet while building practical food preparation and cooking skills. Children can also investigate where ingredients come from, including whether foods are grown, reared or caught, and begin to explore seasonality.
Are Year 3 DT lesson plans part of KS2?
Yes. Year 3 is the first year of Key Stage 2, so Year 3 DT lesson plans should contribute towards the KS2 Design and Technology National Curriculum. Schools have flexibility over how they distribute the KS2 requirements across Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, so there is no single prescribed set of Year 3 DT topics that every school must teach.
Where can I find Year 3 DT lesson plans and resources?
PlanBee's Year 3 DT resources include ready-to-teach lesson plans, activities and schemes of work covering a range of Design and Technology projects. Resources are designed to help children develop their designing, making, evaluating and technical knowledge while supporting progression through the KS2 DT curriculum.
