Hi, welcome to today's lesson on selecting materials for wind sails.

My name's Mr. Brown.

Hope you're ready to learn and looking forward to learning all about different materials and how to use them for wind sails.

Today's learning outcome is to choose materials that are going to work best for sails.

The keywords that we're going to be looking at today are materials, so what something is made of; properties, words to describe what a material is like; thickness, the size through an object, so thick being opposite of thin; and testing, trying something to see if it works and to make changes or to make improvements to it.

There are two learning cycles today for selecting materials for wind sails.

The first learning cycle is about wind sail materials.

The second is testing and choosing wind sail materials.

We're going to be starting today with wind sail materials.

Now, have a look at these objects.

They are made from different materials.

We have a window that's made out of glass and plastic, fence, which is made out wood, bin, which is made out of plastic, spoon, which is made out of metal, and socks, which are made out of fabric.

Let's check for understanding.

Which of these is a material? Is it A, bib? B, scissors? Or C, foil? That's correct.

It's C, foil.

The bin and the scissors are names of objects, but they're not necessarily the name of the material that they are.

Foil is both the name of the object and also the type of material that it is.

Now, when we're thinking about wind sails, they can be made from different materials because it depends upon where they're going to be, what sort of jobs they do, and that makes a big difference as to the type of materials that we choose.

So for example, a wind sail on a boat would be fabric potentially.

A wind sail for a windmill, it could be wooden.

And for a handheld windmill, it might be plastic.

And, of course, you could also use cardboard as well.

Now, all of these are different types of materials and they can be used in design and make tasks.

Some materials are gonna be better than others for different purposes and different objects and different things that we're going to be using them for.

Here we've got paper and fabric and card and foil and tissue paper.

Now, as we've said, we use different materials for different reasons and this is because they've got different properties.

A property is a word to describe what a material is like and properties can include hard and soft, thick or thin, dull or shiny, colourful, heavy or light, bendy or straight.

So materials might be thick or they might be thin, and thick and thin are different properties of materials.

So this card is thick as you can see on the left there.

And on the right, that's also card, but it's thin.

Check for understanding.

Which cardboard is the thickest? Is it A, B, or C? That's right, it's C.

Well done.

So Andeep's got a bit of a question for everybody.

How will we know which material to use for our wind sails? Sam's thought about this and has said, "Maybe we could try different materials and try the properties of each one." When we choose materials for a windmill, we do need to think about the properties of them so that we're choosing the correct material for our design.

It could be that it's about being thick or thin.

It could be dull or shiny.

It could be about the colour.

And we could also think about whether the material is easy to decorate, how it's easy to cut, so thinking about the materials and also the tools that we might need to actually cut them or to shape them.

Now, to make wind sails out of different materials, we can actually still use the same templates, so we can use the same design even if we're using different materials.

Now today, we're gonna use these materials and equipment.

So you might use a whole different range of materials.

Some examples might be card, foil, tissue paper, and paper.

And you're going to need scissors and a template.

The template here is for a windmill wind sail design.

So to cut the wind sails, we're gonna use scissors.

And scissors are a tool that we need to be very careful with.

So hold the scissors carefully.

Sit down when you're cutting, and only cut paper, card, and materials for your project with scissors.

To cut out the wind sail, we need to cut around the edge of the square, cut along four solid lines, and then fold along the four dotted lines.

Check for understanding.

So two-parter for this one.

So when making the wind sail, which lines do we cut along? Do we cut along the dotted lines, the solid lines, or the dotted and solid lines? Which do we cut A, B, or C? That's right, we cut along the solid lines.

Second part, when making a wind sail, Which lines do we fold along? Is it A, the dotted lines? B, the solid lines? Or C, the dotted and solid lines? That's right.

We fold along the dotted lines.

Well done.

Straight into task A now.

So what we'd like you to do is to cut four wind sails from different materials.

Now, you might choose card, tissue paper, paper, and foil.

You might choose different ones as well.

So that's absolutely fine.

That depends upon what you've got available.

But if you can choose four different materials, use the same template for all four materials.

And remember as you're cutting and shaping each wind sail, you need to consider the properties of the material.

Okay, I'm gonna let you get on now.

Hope you do really well.

Enjoy and off you go.

Right, welcome back.

So just to go through some feedback for you, Alex used foil and it was shiny and very easy to cut.

Andeep used tissue paper.

Unfortunately, it tore and actually fell apart.

Lucas used card and it was really easy to cut and it did keep its shape.

And Izzy used paper and it worked really well, but it was quite bendy.

Now, you may have had similar things that happened.

You might have used some other materials that actually had different effects and different properties.

You might have experienced something different to all of these, but it's really worth reflecting upon the successes of the different properties of materials and considering the ones that didn't work as well because actually we learn from making mistakes and we learn from seeing which ones don't work as well as we do from the ones that did work.

Well done.

Onto the next learning cycle.

So we're going to be testing and choosing wind sail materials.

So Andeep is wondering, "Which materials will work best as a wind sail?" Sam has said, "Well, let's test the materials and see which one is going to be the best to make a wind sail for a windmill." Now, when we're thinking about testing, that means to try something out, see if it works.

And testing helps us find and solve problems and to find the best way to do something.

So when we're testing a material, we can see what properties it has and which one's going to be the best.

Check for understanding.

What does it mean to test something? Does it mean A, to guess what it does? B, look at it without touching it? Or C, to try it out to see how well it works? So what do you think? What does it mean to test something? That's right, it's C, to try it out to see how well it works.

Well done.

So we need to think about testing the different materials for the sail.

So Lucas is asking, "Does it hold the shape?" And Alex is asking, "Does it turn?" So when we're testing, it's always a good idea to collect different views and opinions and it's a good idea to try to rate the materials.

Sam's asking, "How do we actually rate the sails?" Well, we've got an idea for that when we come to the actual task because we can try to rate it by how effective it actually works.

Because by rating, it's going to help you choose the best material for the wind sail.

Check for understanding.

To make a windmill, which of these should we think about? Should we think about A, does it hold its shape? B, is it flat? Or C, does it turn? What do you think? That's right.

There's actually two answers.

So does it hold its shape or does it turn? So those things we really need to think about.

Do we need to worry about whether it's flat? Not really.

And that can actually help us when we're trying to rate the wind sails.

Now, when we're testing the best material for wind sail, we need to change the material, but we want to keep everything else the same.

We can actually use the same straw.

So when we're testing and choosing wind sail materials, we're going to need the following.

We're gonna need sails cut from a range of materials.

Very similar to what we did in task A.

And we're gonna use a pencil and a straw and some sticky tack.

Now, this is a really good tool tip to safely put a hole in the middle of your wind sail.

We're gonna use sticky tack and pencil.

So you put the sticky tack on the table, put the wind sail on top, and using a pencil, put a hole in the wind sail.

And then we can remove the sticky tack and then the windmill is ready 'cause it's got a hole in it already.

So to test the different wind sail materials, we need to put a hole in the centre.

Check the hole is big enough for a straw to fit through.

Then we put the straw through the hole in the wind sail, and then we can blow on the wind sail to see if it turns.

Check for understanding.

To test and find the best material for a wind sail, we need to change? A, the material the sail is made from? B, the colour of the sail? Or C, the shape of the sail? Remember we're looking to test and find the best material.

Which do you think? That's right, we're looking at materials today, so it's the material that the sail is made from, not the colour or the shape.

We're trying to keep the shape exactly the same and the colour won't make much difference at all to finding the best material.

Right, we're onto the testing and we're onto doing task B now.

So we'd like you to test each of the wind sails and then complete the table.

Now, you can see in the table, we've got card, tissue paper, paper, and foil going across the top there.

Those are the four different materials that we suggested you use in task A.

Now, if you've chosen different materials, that's absolutely fine.

You'll just need to change the headings on the material types that are there.

Now, we're going to be looking at two different types of tests today with those different materials.

So the first test we're going to do is whether the material holds its shape.

So when it's folded as a wind sail, does it hold its shape? The second thing we're going to be looking at is whether it turns when we blow the sail.

Now, an easy way of doing this is to actually do a tick or a cross as to whether it works or it doesn't work.

So if we take card, for example, we're going to take our wind sail made out of card and we're going to see does it hold its shape? Say yes or a no, a tick, or a cross, and then you put that into the box.

You then go to the next box down and does it turn when you blow the sail? So you'll need to test whether the sail blows round, whether it turns round, and then put in a tick or a cross.

Now, once we've done those two things, we can rate the sail.

Now, this goes back to what Sam was asking earlier.

How do we rate the sail? Well, we can look at whether it has worked by holding its shape and whether it has turned when we've blown the sail and then we can make a decision.

Do we think that sail is going to be a good material for our wind sails? And we can do this by circling one of the smiley faces that are there.

Now, you might have a really smiley face and that might mean that it's working really, really well and that it's definitely a material you could use.

You might have a neutral sort of middle face and it could be something you use, but it might need some improvements.

And then you've got the sad face, the sad face being you really can't use that at all and it's not going to be a material that you could consider for your wind sails.

So let's go over that again.

So we'll go for card, does it hold its shape? Tick or cross.

Does it turn when you blow it? Tick or cross.

And how do you rate the sail? Smiley face? Sort of a neutral medium face or a sad face? And then you go onto the next one and you do the same for tissue paper.

So does it hold its shape, does it turn, how do you rate it? And then move on to paper.

Does it hold its shape? Does it turn? How do you rate it? And then lastly, foil.

Does it hold its shape? Does it turn? And how do you rate the sail? One thing to note is you don't have to do them in this order.

You might want to start with paper first or you might want to start with tissue paper or foil or card.

It doesn't really matter the order you do them, but just make sure that you do them in the correct columns.

Okay, let's go testing.

Let's see how those go.

Enjoy and remember, tick, cross, and then circle the face that you think a good rating for that wind sail material.

Good luck.

Off you go.

Okay, now we're going on to the second part of this activity.

You've got your results, you've tested your different wind sails, and what we'd like you to do now is to talk to your friend and share your ideas.

So think about which is the best material for your wind sail and why have you chosen that material? So really think about the materials for your wind sail and why you've chosen it.

Have a good discussion.

Compare your chart to someone else's chart.

Have you got things that are similar? Have you got things that are different? And it's okay to have things that are different because at the end of the day, you're going to be choosing the material that's gonna be right for you, that you have actually tested.

Okay, so have your discussions now with a friend, sharing your ideas and think about which material is best for your wind sail.

Think about why you have chosen that.

Okay, off you go.

Welcome back.

So after testing the different materials, these are Sam's results.

So Sam found that when using card, did it hold its shape? Yes.

Did it turn? Yes.

So Sam rated the sail with a big smiley face.

With the tissue paper, Sam found that it didn't hold its shape very well and it didn't turn very well.

And so Sam put a big unhappy face there.

With paper, Sam felt that it did held its shape and it did turn when Sam blew on the sail, but actually the results weren't as good as maybe card was.

And then the final one, Sam found that foil did hold its shape, but it didn't turn very well when it was blown on.

And so therefore, Sam decided that foil wasn't a good material to actually use.

Sam then had a discussion with friends and decided that the card held its shape and turned when it was blown on.

And so therefore, Sam has decided to use card to make the wind sail and also thought about the aesthetics and the colour of the card because actually Sam could choose her favourite colour.

I wonder which one you have decided on and whether you have actually got the same as what Sam decided.

Right, let's go through the key learning points from today's lesson.

The key learning points are that wind sails can be made of different materials.

By testing materials, the most suitable can be selected.

And discussing the results of tests can help us select the correct materials.

Thank you so much for being with me today.

I hope you've got some really good ideas as to the materials you are going to use for your wind sails and I look forward to working with you next time.

Okay, good.

Well done, everybody.

You've done a really good job today.

I look forward to speaking with you next time.

Okay, goodbye.