TILT - Design and Technology in EYFS

Design & Technology in the Early Years at Minster

Building curious, creative problem‑solvers from the very start

In the Early Years at Minster, Design & Technology (D&T) is all about exploration, creativity and discovering how things work. Through imaginative play, practical making, using real tools, and investigating materials, children learn to solve problems, express ideas and build confidence as young designers.

Early D&T experiences help children feel capable, curious and inventive — preparing them brilliantly for the more structured D&T learning in Key Stage 1.

What D&T Looks Like in EYFS

🧩 Exploring Materials & Construction

Children learn to:

• Investigate a wide range of materials (paper, card, fabric, wood, junk modelling items).
• Discover properties such as strong/weak, soft/hard, flexible/rigid.
• Build structures using blocks, natural materials and construction kits.
• Test what works and adapt their ideas as they go.
  These early investigations form the foundation of later engineering and problem‑solving.

🛠 Using Tools Safely & Confidently

Children begin to:

• Use simple tools such as scissors, glue spreaders, hole punchers, tape dispensers and child‑friendly hammers.
• Learn how to join materials using glue, tape, staples, string or clips.
• Practise fine‑motor skills through threading, clay, pouring, stirring and woodwork.
  Adults model safe techniques and support children to use tools independently.

🎨 Designing & Creating

Children develop early design thinking by:

• Talking about what they want to make and why.
• Drawing simple plans or choosing materials purposefully.
• Making products with a real function — e.g. boats that float, bridges that hold weight, houses for small animals or toys.
• Decorating and finishing their creations with care.
  Children learn to make choices, solve problems and take pride in their imaginative ideas.

🧪 Exploring How Things Work

Through hands‑on play, children investigate:

• Moving parts such as wheels, sliders, hinges and simple mechanisms.
• How forces work — pushing, pulling, floating, sinking, stretching and snapping.
• Simple machines such as wind‑up toys, pulleys or cogs.
  This nurtures their natural curiosity about engineering and mechanics.

🍎 Food, Cooking & Nutrition

Children also explore simple food preparation by:

• Washing, peeling, cutting soft foods and mixing ingredients.
• Trying different tastes and learning where food comes from (plants, seeds, animals).
• Understanding basic hygiene — washing hands, cleaning surfaces and keeping food safe.
  These early experiences support healthy choices and practical life skills.

How EYFS D&T Links to Development Matters

Our D&T provision aligns closely with the EYFS educational programmes in:

🧠 Communication & Language

Children learn new vocabulary, explain choices and answer open‑ended design questions like “How did you make that?” and “What will happen if…?”

🤝 Personal, Social & Emotional Development

D&T teaches resilience, teamwork, taking turns, sharing ideas and embracing mistakes as part of learning.

🏃 Physical Development

Handling tools, building structures and manipulating materials develop both fine and gross motor skills.

📚 Literacy

Children label models, describe their creations and use design‑related language in talk and play.

🔢 Mathematics

Children use early maths through patterning, shape, measures, comparing sizes, and building structures.

🌍 Understanding the World

Children explore materials, investigate forces and learn how everyday products and natural objects function.

🎭 Expressive Arts & Design

D&T overlaps strongly with creativity — children design, build and invent using open‑ended resources.

How EYFS D&T Prepares Children for Year 1

By the end of Reception, children move into Key Stage 1 with:

✔ Early design skills

Talking about what they want to make, planning simple designs and choosing appropriate materials.

✔ Growing confidence with tools

Cutting, joining, taping, folding and constructing safely and independently.

✔ Understanding of mechanisms & structures

Exploring wheels, sliders, levers and simple structures gives them a strong technical starting point.

✔ Problem‑solving ability

Learning to try, test, adapt and improve — mirroring the KS1 ‘design–make–evaluate’ cycle.

✔ Curiosity and creativity

A positive attitude to experimentation, invention and imaginative making.

These experiences mean children are ready, eager and capable when formal D&T begins in Year 1.
 

Our Vision for D&T in EYFS

At Minster, we want every child to:

✨ Be curious about how things work
✨ Use their imagination to design, build and create
✨ Develop practical skills that make them feel capable
✨ Work together, share ideas and solve problems
✨ Feel proud of their creativity and resilience

Communication and language:

Examples of how this is developed in relation to the Design and Technology curriculum include:

• Adults identify and develop key vocabulary during planning e.g. changes in materials
• Adults use technical terms for specific tools
• Adults will discuss which category the word is in, for example: “A cabbage is a kind of vegetable. It’s a bit like a sprout but much bigger”.
• Show genuine interest when scaffolding learning to find out more e.g. “This looks amazing, I need to know more about this.” “How did you join…….” “Why did you choose to use….”
• Adults building upon their incidental talk: “Your tower is definitely the tallest I’ve seen all week. Do you think you’ll make it any higher?” Suggestion: ask open questions - “How did you make that? Why does the wheel move so easily? What will happen if you do that?”
• Adults reading aloud books to children that will extend their knowledge of the world and illustrate a current topic.

Personal, Social and Emotional development:

Examples of how this is developed in relation to the Design and Technology curriculum include:

• Adults providing opportunities for children to work collaboratively on design and make tasks.
• During group activities, adults encourage children to take on different roles.
• Simple tools are incorporated into learning, some requiring one hand some requiring two.
• Adults will provide opportunities for low-risk situations to develop self-esteem. Adults will talk to pupils about risks and how to reduce these to develop self-care.
• When working collaboratively on make and design projects, adults encourage the children to think about what the user would like/need.
• Getting children to empathise with users e.g., if a dinosaur with short arms can’t do his shoelaces how would he feel? 
• Adults to narrate their own choices about selecting healthy foods.
• To develop pupil confidence adults will invite children into specific tasks.
• Through guided talk adults support how to resolve problems and difficulties and show that learning takes time and mistakes are okay.

Physical Development:

Examples of how this is developed in relation to the Design and Technology curriculum include:

• Adults encourage lots of opportunities for children to move freely and explore their surroundings like a slope, a large hole, puddles or a sandpit.
• Adults provide a range of materials to make, and design including different types of paper for children to tear, make marks on and print on.
• Adults model when appropriate a range of tools to develop fine motor skills.
• A range of activities are offered to children to develop and further refine their small motor skills including:

• threading and sewing,
• woodwork,
• pouring,
• stirring,
• making models with junk materials,
• construction kits and malleable materials like clay.

Literacy:

Examples of how this is developed in relation to the Design and Technology curriculum include:

• Providing opportunities for children to write and talk about what they have designed through captions, labels, simple descriptions and explanations. 
• Providing non-fiction books relating to machines, buildings, products, factories and more.
• Labelling design and technology resources in the classroom.

Mathematics:

Examples of how this is developed in relation to the Design and Technology curriculum include:

• Adults encouraging children to talk informally about shape properties using words like ‘sharp corner’, ‘pointy’ or ‘curvy’.
• Children talking about shapes as you play with them: “We need a piece with a straight edge.”
• Providing a variety of construction materials like blocks and interlocking bricks.
• When appropriate, adults talk about the shapes and how their properties suit the purpose.
• Providing shapes that combine to make other shapes, such as pattern blocks and interlocking shapes, for children to play freely with.
• When appropriate, adults discuss the different designs that children make. 
• Providing a range of natural and everyday objects and materials, as well as blocks and shapes, for children to play with freely and to make patterns with. When appropriate, encourage children to continue patterns and spot mistakes.
• Providing a range of units of measure including both standard and non-standard.
• Setting of challenges that require measures e.g. a bridge that needs to hold 3 cups of sand.
• Providing opportunities to use their developing skills in measures when creating products as well as using estimation and comparison.
• Showing children how to weigh ingredients when following a recipe.
• Modelling comparative language using ‘than’ and encourage children to use this vocabulary. For example: “This is heavier than that.”
• Asking children to make and test predictions. “What if we pour the jugful into the teapot? Which holds more?”
• Providing opportunities to explore packaging – 2D and 3D.

Understanding the world:

Examples of how this is developed in relation to the Design and Technology curriculum include:

• Making collections of natural materials to investigate and talk about e.g. pebbles, barks, leaves, seeds and rocks.
• Providing equipment to support these investigations e.g. magnifying glasses or a tablet with a magnifying app. 
• Providing mechanical equipment for children to play with and investigate e.g. wind-up toys, pulleys, sets of cogs with pegs and boards.
• Drawing children’s attention to forces e.g. how the water pushes up when they try to push a plastic boat under it, how they can stretch elastic, snap a twig, but can’t bend a metal rod, magnetic attraction and repulsion.
• Exploring how different materials sink and float.
• Planning and introduce new vocabulary related to the exploration and encourage children to use it.

Expressive arts and design:

Examples of how this is developed in relation to the Design and Technology curriculum include:

• Providing lots of flexible and open-ended resources for children’s imaginative play including roles linked to design, construction, engineering, food and nutrition.
• Offering opportunities to explore scale e.g. long strips of wallpaper, child size boxes, different surfaces to work on e.g. paving, floor, tabletop or easel
• Adults listening and understanding what children want to create before offering suggestions.
• Helping children to develop their drawing and modelmaking.
• Encouraging children them to develop their own creative ideas.
• Providing a range of appropriate materials e.g. different types of paper, boxes, masking/Sellotape, glue, paperclips, fasteners.
• Teaching children different techniques for joining materials, such as how to use adhesive tape and different sorts of glue.
• Providing a range of materials and tools and teach children to use them with care and precision.
• Promoting independence, taking care not to introduce too many new things at once.
• Encouraging children to think about what their product is for e.g. fruit drink for a party.
• Asking children to say who their product is for e.g. coat for Teddy.
• Function – making sure that children have opportunities to create products that have to work in some way in order to be successful e.g. using a construction kit, make a wall strong and stable enough for Humpty Dumpty.
• Aesthetics – ask children to think about the appearance, finish and texture of the product e.g. decorative effects used on a simple felt bag to suit the user.
• Children having the freedom to select media and materials from an appropriate range.
• Encouraging children to use their senses, as appropriate, to explore the simple working characteristics of materials including food, textiles and construction materials.
• Providing opportunities to play with and explore a range of large and small construction kits that use different forms of joining.