Homes DT Lessons - The Complete Series (6 lessons)

This scheme of work is also part of a Topic Bundle. Perfect if you are teaching 'Houses and Homes' as a cross-curricular topic.

The first lesson in this series encourages your class to explore and investigate the various types of houses people live in around the world. In their independent activities, they will further explore the features of houses using their observation skills to answer questions and solve riddles.

In this practical lesson, your class will briefly focus on the different materials used when building houses, before discussing how architects make models of their designs before constructing them. Children will discuss how they could combine and join materials to make their own model house. In their independent activities, children practise using and joining materials using different methods.

Encourage your class to use their creativity in this lesson! Children will focus on the interior of the house, and how they could make models of items of furniture. They will be encouraged to think about the properties of different materials, and how these properties could help or hinder them. In their independent activities, children choose and use a variety of materials to make models of items of furniture.

At the start of this lesson, children will discuss what design criteria are. They will look at the design criteria for their model house, and talk about how they could achieve these goals as a class, before creating a design plan. In the alternative activity, children are given ‘clients’, who have specific wants, to design a house for!

Your class can put their creative genius to work as they follow their designs to make their own model homes! Before making their model house, children will be encouraged to look over their plans and remind themselves of the materials, equipment and joining techniques they will use. As a class, they will revisit the design criteria and discuss how they can make sure their models are stable. Please note that, due to the practical nature of this lesson, worksheets are not necessary and, therefore are not included.

In the final lesson in this series, children will share their model houses with their classmates, and discuss how successful they are in relation to the design criteria. They will then evaluate their own houses using the worksheets provided, explaining how their models could be improved if they were to make them again.