Hornbeam Class

Welcome to Hornbeam Class 2023/24.

Watch this video to find out what is happening this term in our class.

 

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September Review

Welcome to Hornbeam Class September Class blog.

It has been a great pleasure seeing the children settle so well in their new class and alongside their hard work their individual personalities have really shone through.

 

Maths

In maths we have been working on refining our knowledge of number and place value to provide us with a solid foundation of learning as we start to move onto addition and subtraction this autumn. 

 

English

In our reading and writing lessons, we have been looking at our core text for this term – Hidden Figures. The children have really engaged with the text and have demonstrated a growing appreciation of the amazing achievements of these women and their role in sending man to the moon. The children are now publishing their own biographies of Katherine Johnson, using all of the interesting and engaging vocabulary they have been developing.

 

 

Humanities

Our Geography topic this term is looking at rivers and the environment. So far we have looked at the development of settlements on the Thames and the Nile. We are now exploring the Amazon and will be looking at the devastating effects the deforestation is having; an issue the children have  already shown great interest in.

 

Science

Our science topic this term is lifecycles of plants and animals. The children have learnt about the lifecycles of different animals and have explored the process of metamorphosis.  

We have also been lucky this term to have a weekly taught session led by Charlton Athletic football club. This has focussed on how the children can live healthily including through their diet and exercise. Excitingly, the children then have the opportunity to learn some new games and their competitive side is certainly beginning to show.

 

 

October Review

Welcome to Hornbeam October Class blog.

The class has been enthusiastically continuing with their work and have shown just how well they have settled into our weekly routine. I am so pleased with everyone’s development and have been so impressed with the children’s writing not just in English but across the curriculum.

 

English

We have started the book, The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman. The children have really engaged with this fantastic picture book, and it is bringing out the best of their creative writing.

 

Assessments

In the last week before Half Term the children undertook assessments in Reading and Mathematics. The assessments cover the whole year’s curriculum and so there are many areas which the children have not learnt yet. Despite this, the class has done really well, and I was very pleased by how they approached the assessments and their continued hard work across the week. They very much deserved their Friday Inset day off.

 

Trip to Hall Place

The children went on the first school trip of 2023/24 to Hall Place in Bexley. The children were excited from the moment we went to get the bus, and stayed engaged despite the constant wet weather. We had a wonderful taught session looking at butterflies and moths, which fits in with our science topic of lifecycles, including a chance to explore the fantastic historical collection of preserved insects. We then had the opportunity to explore the Hall Place site, looking at nature, and racing around the grass maze.

 

Art

This term we have looked at a variety of art including Bansky style graffiti, Warhol’s Rorschach pictures, pottery shapes and even telling stories using Emoji’s. The children have really enjoyed the opportunity to explore art in a different way and then create their own pieces. See a selection of the great work from the children below.

 

 

November Review

 Welcome to the Hornbeam November review. As the days become shorter, it is be so nice to see the class work as a community, with some excellent examples seen of students going above and beyond to help others. 

Trip to Tower Bridge

November began with a fantastic trip to Tower Bridge. We had a Bridge Builders workshop where we learnt about the structure of bridges and had a go at building our own strong structure that would allow a boat to travel underneath.

                                                        

We also had the amazing opportunity to take a tour of the bridge and engine rooms. We walked along the top of the bridge - over a glass floor! The children were incredibly brave and thoroughly enjoyed looking down and the river and traffic below! We learnt so many facts about this amazing structure in London to help with our DT topic 'Bridges' this half term.

 

Writing

The children have been working incredibly hard to produce fantastic narratives based on our core text Wolves in the Walls. They did an amazing job to include eerie vocabulary to give their writing a dark tone, and showed great imagination and creative flair.  I have really enjoyed reading Meerkats in the Mailbox, Panthers in the Paintings and many other wonderful stories.

 

Science

We finished off our science topic of 'Living things and their Habitats' by carrying out a plant dissection. The children identified and labelled the different parts of the plant with a particular focus on the parts used for reproduction in flowers.