2. Materials for Design and Technology.

This resource is part of the Tool Box series by AccessArt, which shares design and technology project ideas via a series of lesson plans.

Collecting Materials for Design and Technology – A Video for Pupils
Explains to pupils which materials they might want to collect and use, in preparation towards creating their game.

Please note this page contains videos housed on You Tube. If your school blocks You Tube AccessArt would be happy to provide an email to confirm the integrity of these videos. Please email us here. 

“Ready to get started? Let’s start by looking at some materials…

OK, so what are you going to make your games out of? The best way to start – the best way to “design through making”, is to gather as many different kinds of materials together as you can – so that you’ve got  a really good selection to choose from. Many of these materials you’ll already have in school, others you can get for free by recycling, and maybe others will be donated by your mums and dads – stuff they have from home.

Try to think of different kinds of materials. Think in terms of materials which you can build structures with, and materials you can fasten with, and try to get a variety of each.

For example – you’ll need cardboard, so try to get a variety of kinds of cardboard: corrugated (from boxes/large sheets), thin board, thick mounting board, cardboard tubes. So here’s some suggestions:

Collect wood: matchsticks, lolly sticks, kebab sticks, thin long pieces of dowel, sawn timber, sheets of hardboard, garden canes, willow sticks…

Fastening materials: string (thick and thin), cotton, wire (bendy thin and strong thick), elastic bands, masking tape, gaffa tape, electrical tape, wood glue, pva glue, cold melt glue guns, screws, nails…

Fabric and sheets: cotton material, hessian, old carpet, plastic webbing, tarpaulin, roofing felt, paper, tissue paper, wallpaper…

Recycled objects: yogurt pots, plastic bottles, boxes…

Found objects: old discarded things like door handles, hinges, door bolts, marbles, golf balls, tennis balls, slats from wooden blinds

Useful extras: paint (poster or poster mixed with pva)…

Once you have collected your materials, we’d like you to take a photo of them and upload them to the Tool Box site – you teacher knows how to do this. That way we can see what you’ve been up to. If you’d like to make a video too and upload it to YouTube, we’d love to see that too. Then we can really start talking to each other!”

Next visit:

Gathering Tools

This is a sample of a resource created by UK Charity AccessArt. We have over 1500 resources to help develop and inspire your creative thinking, practice and teaching.

AccessArt welcomes artists, educators, teachers and parents both in the UK and overseas.

We believe everyone has the right to be creative and by working together and sharing ideas we can enable everyone to reach their creative potential.