Well done to Annie and Hugo for representing Hornbeam in the Wimbledon finals. All of KS2 watched as Hugo won his final and Annie just missed out on the title. A big well done to them both. All of us in Hornbeam were very proud of you!
Today, the children bought in the amazing bridges that they all built at home. We were all very impressed by the creativity and build quality throughout. We presented our bridge ideas and discussed what problems and solutions were found during the building process.
This week, we embraced the sunshine and took one of our maths lessons outside. We used the knowledge we were given at the Melbury Estate to measure the trees in the school grounds. We used this information to work out the carbon value of each tree and the effect of this on our school environment.
We had a wonderful day exploring the Melbury Estate and learning all about life in a country house. After speaking to the game keeper and the deer keeper, we managed to spot some deer and a heron! The butlers showed us the ins and outs of running a household while we played a quick round of croquet.
After lunch, we visited the dairy and made friends with the 1,100 cows, learning all about the milking process and how the milk is transported to make cheese.
The reviews are in and they all say the same thing, well done to Year 5 for their sensational play. Everyone in Year 5 worked incredibly hard to make Dream On the best play it could be and both Miss Taylor and I are proud of you all. Take a bow Year 5!
Today, we celebrated the upcoming coronation with many fun activities and a visit from a very special guest. We enjoyed an ice cream in the afternoon, kindly provided by the PTA. It was a super day! God save the King!
Click the note below to practise your part in the songs for our year 5 play.
This week, we explored different types of poetry including haikus and blackout poems. The children used extracts from various novels to create their blackout poems. Blackout poems are a form of visual found poetry. Existing texts are repurposed to create a piece of poetry with a new meaning.
We really enjoyed our time at forest school this week. The children were taught to whittle wood, create dens and were given the opportunity to explore the school grounds, searching for plants and wildlife. The day was rounded off with a lovely cup of hot chocolate and some s'mores.
Hornbeam had a super visit from Yeovil River Community Trust. We learned about types of water in our local area and the wildlife that lives in and around them. After this, we walked up to Oak Tree Park. The children worked in groups and used nets to catch and study what was in the water. We found tadpoles, frogspawn, freshwater shrimp and leaches.
On Thursday, we were lucky enough to explore the stars with the Explorer Dome. Pupils were able to take a whistle stop tour through our galaxy, while learning about atmospheres on other planets and the possibility of life in space.
This week, pupils competed in the school Science Fair. We saw experiments from many different years and on numerous different subjects. Hornbeam was lucky enough to explore the entries with their creators during the afternoon. Well done to everyone who took part in the Science Fair and a huge pat on the back to Mrs Chambers for arranging it all!
A super day was had by all of Hornbeam on World Book Day. We were so impressed with the effort everyone had put into their World Book Day costumes. We spent the day discussing our favourite books and the characters the children had come as. We then designed their own book covers, book marks and word searches. We also created our own ebooks which we shared with the children in reception in the afternoon. What a super day buried in our favourite books!
The well-being challenge inspires the children to learn a new skill outside of school. After they have learned a new skill they give a small talk to the class about their skills.
This week, Hornbeam class were lucky enough to take part in a language fair organised by our language ambassadors. This fair allowed the children to learn letters, phrases and games from some of the languages that are spoken by pupils in our school.
In Hornbeam, we celebrated safer internet day by focusing on how to remain safe online. We created comic book style posters showing how to stay safe online and some of the risks of using social media unwisely.
We were lucky enough to take part in a session with GCHQ on all of the work that they do keeping the country safe. The children were able to listen to what it is like to work at GCHQ and what it takes to be a spy!
We have entered the Somerset Anne Frank Youth Awards for creative writing. Each year, the competition selects a quote from Anne Frank's diary for the children to use as inspiration for their writing. This years quote is ‘no one has ever become poor by giving’. The children were tasked with creating a 500 word piece of writing. We discussed, planned and typed our stories ready for them to be submitted.
In science, we discussed what we thought would happen when we mix bicarbonate of soda and malt vinegar. We made predictions before doing our experiment and then the children wrote up their findings.
This week, in Art we have been focusing on creating portraits using pencil and shading to accentuate detail. We have been drawing portraits of the late Dr Martin Luther King Jr after discussing his influential role in the American Civil Rights Movement.
It's been a great first week back! I have loved hearing all about the children’s Christmas holidays. In Geography this half-term, we are studying Modern Greece. We started by using our computing knowledge to use Google Earth and locate Greece, it's cities and landmarks.
We enjoyed our trip to the Yeovil Octagon to watch Dick Whittington, oh no we didn’t! Oh yes we did! The children had a great time interacting with all of the characters and having a sing along too!
We had a very special visitor to Hornbeam today, Santa! Hornbeam had obviously been very good this year as we received several gifts to use as a class including Brian box quizzes and an air hockey table.
This week, our class took part in an online music concert. The children sang along to many Christmas songs and listened to many different types of music.
This half term in Art, we have been concentrating on lino printing. The children then created their own designs based on the Victorian artist, William Morris.
On Wednesday, Year 5 travelled back in time to the Victorian period. Dressed in their Victorian costumes all of the children were ready to start a day in the life of a Victorian child. Lining up silently on the playground and marching into the classroom we’re the children’s first glimpse into life for a child during the Victorian era. Upon entering the classroom, the children were met with lines where they had to copy out lines such as ‘children must be seen but not heard’ and ‘speak when you are spoken to but not before’. We then made Victorian crafts such as decoupage boxes, peg dolls and a thaumatrope. We also made a classic Victorian sponge. After lunch, the children used chalk to draw hopscotch on the playground and finally we all sat down and enjoyed our Victorian afternoon tea.
Today, the school was awash with polka dots and Pudsey bear ears as the school came together to raise funds for Children in need. The fabulous donations and the funds raised by the school council will go towards helping children and young people throughout the UK. A huge thank you to everyone!
This week, we celebrated democracy by taking part in Parliament week. We discussed how laws are made and tried to put ourselves in the shoes of MPs by holding a debate, followed by a vote. After a visit from our local MP, Marcus Fysh, the children created their own parties. They then gave a short presentation on how they would address issues such as improving Yeovil, longer or shorter school hours and the environment.
Well done to everyone in Hornbeam and Hazel who competed in the school cross country race. We were so impressed that every child put in so much effort and ran the whole 1.2 kilometres.
We have had great fun this week testing the properties of materials. We tested the hardness, solubility, transparency, response to magnets, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity of a variety of materials. The overall favourite was definitely the hardness test - dropping a 1kg on an object, followed closely by attaching the objects to an electrical circuit! We confirmed our hypothesis that our metal objects would be good conductors and the rubber items would be good insulators.
Hornbeam Class took part in Remembrance day by creating their own poppy sun catchers, using colours inspired by the different poppies that are used to remember different conflicts. In English, we wrote letters about the Christmas Truce focussing on how to convey emotion. At 11am, Key Stage 2 gathered on the playground to listen to Year 6 perform readings and poems, and listen to the bugle. We then acknowledged the 2 minutes silence whilst thinking about those who have given their lives for us.
In music, we explored making marks when listening to various pieces, including classical and modern. The pupils then discussed why each piece made them make these marks using key vocabulary such as pitch and dynamics.
We all had a great time focusing on our mental well-being on Hello Yellow day. As a class, we talked about how important it is to look after our mental health. To promote a sense of well-being throughout the year we decided to brighten up our cloak room with our own graffiti art.
This week, Hornbeam travelled to Ashford Waterworks to see how rivers and the water cycle work in order to provide the water that we all use everyday. Pupils were given a tour of the waterworks, found out about local wildlife around the reservoir and completed experiments at the on site stream.
To celebrate Art Week Hornbeam decided to focus on creating art inspired by the fossil record of Ham Hill. We researched different types of ammonites and recreated them using pencil.
This week we were visited by local artist, Carolyn Lesley, who talked us through her inspirations and work. We then used this to start our own journey into art by drawing local fossils.
In computing this week, we focused on internet safety. We had discussed how we can keep ourselves safe online. Hornbeam created e-safety posters that will be displayed throughout the classroom to help pupils remember how to keep safe when surfing the web.
This week in geography, we used Atlases to discover which continents and countries the largest rivers in the world run through.
We focused on creating perspective in art this week with the pupils producing some amazing artwork. We all found it tricky to start off with but with lots of patience and perseverance they succeeded in creating beautiful sketches.
This week in science we focused on learning about all of the planets in our Solar System. Each group researched a planet and gave a presentation to the rest of the class sharing interstellar facts about their chosen planet.
Welcome back! I hope that each of you had a wonderful summer. I am glad to have the Hornbeam classroom beaming with your warm smiles! I enjoyed listening to your summer adventures.
Back to school can seem a little scary, but it means you are growing up and becoming even more awesome! Mrs Huggins, Mr Kerrigan and I will be there to support and guide you every step of the way.
Miss Mulvey