Famous Buildings 2024 – Banton Biggies

Buildings Built

We have finally finished our rather epic Makerspace project.

We started at the start of term, researching famous buildings. The class them picked a building ( a lot of Big Bens) and got into pairs, trios or decided to work by them selves. They them produced a design and planed how they were going to make their models.

We then had quite a few sessions of building, making, breaking & problem solving. We made some amazing models and learn a lot.

Child working on cardboard building — Cardboard Construction

Montage of children working on modelling — Cardboard Construction

Earlier this week we invited the rest of the school to view our work and to be inspired to make their own models. We had a fun afternoon.

Share our Stem

Today we used the models again on our open classroom morning the parents who attended seemed very impressed.

We also used out ICT & design skills to create posters about the building we were working on. I think the class did a great job of laying out their information & images, we concentrated on alignment, attribution & readability:

Display board with posters created by pupils.

Children’s View

I asked the pupils three questions, here are their answers

The most important thing I learned was to fix the mistakes and always try again and work in a team.

I enjoyed the most painting the building and design the top for Big Ben. I also enjoyed making the clock.

I would make the top I tiny bit different like the design.

Alexia

I learned that it was the tallest building in the world and it had the fastest speed of elevator. I enjoyed how it was supposed to made out of lots of tubes. I would make the elevator move.
Xander

I learned how to fix mistakes when something was not the right size

I really enjoyed painting the building

Ii would change the top a little different in colour

Lexi

The most important thing I learned was that if you run into a problem you can always find a way to fix it. What I enjoyed the most was working with Faith and Alex because it was really fun and we didn’t blame each other for mistakes. What I would do differently next time is instead of the toppers and bells do a bit of the Palace of Westminster.
Juliet

1.Durning the making of our Big Ben we learned quite a lot but the most important thing I think I learned wasn’t any of the skills, I think it was that it doesn’t matter who you work with and it doesn’t matter if it goes your way, it’s about the fun and great times you had together that count.

Whilst making Big Ben my favourite part was listening to my partners ideas and using them in different ways or giving them more ideas that improved their first one.

Next time I would maybe think about the design and give other techniques and suggestions a try, I would maybe make a different building and scale it better.

Olivia Rose

I think the most important thing I’ve learned while making our buildings in the makerspace is getting better at scaling and measuring. I really enjoyed making the centre part of the building because there was a lot of measuring and cutting involved. If I could do something differently I would not make a frame for the bottom part.
Rory

I learned a lot about making and fixing different thing and solving problems. I did enjoy seeing it being finished and looking good. If I could do anything different I would of made the knex more secure.
Harry

The most important thing I have learned was measuring
I enjoyed working with different people that I wouldn’t normally work with
I wouldn’t do anything different
Alex

I learned that not every thing you should quit so you keep going and that was a good thing to learn so I learned that I enjoyed making the base because I really enjoyed measuring and checking to see if the length and the width is the correct amount I would make more details and try to make my own clock that moves
Tony

I most enjoyed when I had to work out all of the measurements of everything and I enjoyed working out the problems that I had and I learned how to do all of these things and I also learned how to scale thing like these buildings down.
Blair

I learned problem solving and I enjoyed making the building and cutting stuff out the thing that I would do different is working with others.
Jamie

The most important thing that I learned is that if you’ve done something wrong you don’t have to have a temper tantrum you try it again.

I Enjoyed working with my friends and making the net.

Instead of making a 3D bell we made a paper bell.

Chloe

Working with as a team is fun and useful.

I enjoyed painting

Don’t use frames (unless it’s heavy enough).

Nathaniel

Building Buildings

The class are making good progress working on their Famous Building models. Some really creative solutions and problem solving.

When making the centre part of the building, we stumbled across a problem with the folds, I used the makedo tool to make folds where I wanted them to be but in the piece of cardboard I was using had folds where I didn’t want them to be. So I used parts of skewers to hot glue over the folds and that fixed the problem.
Rory

In the MakerSpace, Alexia, Chloe and I made a paper bell to go inside our Big Ben, Alexia had designed the bell and once we had made the roof we thought it would be a good idea to use a skewer to attach the bell, once we had tried it didn’t work, the skewer was too obvious and it didn’t work when we put the roof on, to fix the problem we used string instead. We also had the problem of the roof covering the hole for the clock, we decided to vaguely cut a hole in the roof to fit the clock and it worked.
Olivia

My problem was that the flaps were not strong enough to fix the problem we got sticks and stuck them on the the flaps to fix them.
Alex

I had a problem with how the supports for the cardboard strip that does over the bridge would be held. The problem was that I didn’t know how to put a piece that would work good to hold the cardboard. I solved this by using a egg box bit if cardboard.
Harry

I needed to put tape in the inside of my top of the Big Ben to make it easier to hot glue.
Lexi

Last week’s Biggies Highlights

Well last week went a bit too quickly for me to post this.

Famous Buildings

We have started another Makerspace project. The class are going to make models of famous buildings. After some research, organising groups and working out sizes and designs we started on Tuesday.

The first stage mostly involved cutting big sheets of cardboard to the correct size.

Montage of 4 photos of children cutting large pieces of cardboard.

Junior Leaders

On Wednesday afternoon Julie from Active Schools NL came in to train the Biggies to be Junior Leaders. This is training to help the children organise and lead games for the younger pupils. They need to think about safety and fun.

We were delighted to get a great report form Julie, the class are well on their way to be Junior Leaders and give the wee ones some fun.

Mair Scunners

A few years ago the biggies invented some Scottish horror characters, or scunners. We had another go this year, drawing the characters and giving them a backstory in Scots. Have a read:

Scots Afternoon

As well as working on Scots during language last week we had a ‘Scots celebration & fun’ afternoon on Friday, this included, pinning the tail on the haggis, irn brew floats, throwing the wellie and 2 amazing pipers. Hopefully we wil post more on this later.