Year 5 Design and Technology Resources

Popular Year 5 DT Schemes of Work:

Frequently Asked Questions about Year 5 Design and Technology

What is taught in Year 5 Design and Technology?

In Year 5 Design and Technology, children develop their designing, making and evaluating skills through increasingly complex practical projects. They should research the needs of users, investigate existing products, develop and communicate design ideas, select appropriate tools and materials, make functional products with increasing accuracy and evaluate how successfully their finished products meet their design criteria.

What does the Year 5 DT curriculum include?

Year 5 forms part of the KS2 Design and Technology curriculum. Across Key Stage 2, children should develop their knowledge and skills through of structures, mechanical systems, electrical systems, textiles and cooking and nutrition. They should also learn to use research to inform their designs, communicate ideas in different ways, make products accurately and evaluate and improve their work.

What are some good Year 5 DT activities and projects?

Year 5 DT activities should give children a purposeful design challenge rather than simply asking them to reproduce a particular product. Projects might involve designing and making structures, creating products using gears, pulleys or cams, incorporating electrical systems, designing textile products or preparing and cooking food. Children can work through the full design, make and evaluate process as part of each project.

What designing skills should Year 5 children develop?

Children should increasingly use research to understand the needs and preferences of an intended user and use this information to develop design criteria. They can generate, compare and refine ideas using annotated sketches, diagrams, prototypes, models and, where appropriate, computer-aided design. They should also be able to explain and justify their design decisions.

What making skills should be taught in Year 5 DT?

Year 5 children should select suitable tools, equipment, materials and components according to their functional properties and the requirements of their design. They should work with increasing accuracy when measuring, marking out, cutting, shaping, joining, assembling and finishing materials, making adjustments where necessary as their product develops.

What technical knowledge should children develop in Year 5 DT?

Year 5 DT projects can develop children's understanding of how to strengthen and reinforce structures and how mechanical systems such as gears, pulleys, cams and linkages create or change movement. Children can also explore electrical systems using components such as switches, bulbs, buzzers and motors and apply computing knowledge to control products where appropriate.

How should children evaluate their DT work in Year 5?

Evaluation should be an ongoing part of the design process. Children should investigate and analyse existing products, test prototypes and ideas, gather feedback and make improvements during construction. They should then evaluate their finished product against their original design criteria and consider how effectively it meets the needs of its intended user.

What cooking and nutrition skills can be taught in Year 5?

Year 5 cooking and nutrition projects can develop children's ability to prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of techniques. Children should also develop their understanding of a healthy and varied diet, seasonality and where ingredients come from, including how food is grown, reared, caught and processed.

Are there specific Year 5 DT topics that schools have to teach?

There is no fixed list of Design and Technology topics that every Year 5 class must study. The National Curriculum sets out expectations for the whole of KS2, so schools can decide how these are distributed across Years 3 to 6. This means individual Year 5 DT units and projects will vary depending on a school's curriculum sequence.

What are the main Year 5 DT objectives?

Year 5 DT objectives should contribute towards the KS2 requirements for designing, making, evaluating, technical knowledge and cooking and nutrition. By Year 5, children will typically be expected to work with greater independence and precision, make informed choices about tools and materials, apply technical knowledge to their designs and use testing and evaluation to refine their products.

Where can I find Year 5 DT lesson plans and resources?

PlanBee's Year 5 Design and Technology resources include ready-to-teach lesson plans, activities and complete schemes of work for a range of practical DT projects. Resources are designed to support the KS2 Design and Technology curriculum while developing children's designing, making, evaluating and technical skills.