Welcome to the webpage for Hockney Class!

Our teacher is Mrs Wright. Our TAs are: Mr Woods & Miss Kiely!

      

Term 3 - Ancient Maya

Year 6 have been researching the Ancient Mayans, a sophisticated civilization that we found were located in modern day Central America between the years 2000BC to AD1600.

Our first discovery was that the Mayans discovered and consumed chocolate as a drink from the cacao plant. This fantastic contribution was not the chocolate we know but extremely dark bitter concentrated chocolate with not a touch of milk. We endeavoured to taste test different dark chocolate for a range of 55% to 90% cocoa. Suffice to say, it was a bit of a shock to some of us.

  

As a part of Mayan life we created clay drinking cups decorated in traditional Mayan pigments to hold our chocolate drinks.

With such a Happy Hippo start we became more and more curious about other aspects of their lives. This took us through the Mayan number system (base 20) and the Mayan Calendar> We had enough understanding of these to compare and contrast them to our systems today and we agreed that a system of 18 months of 20 days and 20 day names associated with 13 numbers seemed a little more complicated than our own.

As Open-Minded Octopi, we explored in greater depth various aspects of Mayan life.

Incredibly, the masterful Mayan civilisation built vast city-like states such as Tikal and Chichen Itza featuring pyramid temples; Mayan script was the most highly developed writing system ever to be seen; they developed farming and a lot of foods that we eat today; and celebrated and venerated over 200 gods and goddesses. They were a truly remarkable people and we loved exploring their world and presenting our findings.

       
 

Term 2 - Remembrance

Two days after Remembrance Day, Year 6 visited the war memorial in Dover town centre. A sombre occasion, in which we could pay respects to those who have fought and fallen in many wars for the country. We laid wreaths we made at school, observed a minute's silence and viewed the different family names and regiments. Finally, some members of Year 6 read out their recently written war poetry. A moving and important occasion for all of us.

  

Hawthorne Trenches

We were delighted to visit the Hawthorne Trenches just outside Elham in Kent. Created by WW1 enthusiasts they have created, in exact detail, the German and Allied forces trenches alongside many rare and original artifacts. Having studied the conditions of war, it was an amazing opportunity to visualise and experience our learning. The trip fuelled enthusiasm to create a Hawthorne Trenches information poster based on our learning. We remembered the sacrifice of soldiers in appalling conditions.  

Remembering the Heroes

Some notable heroes of WW1 demand to be remembered such as Walter Tull from Folkestone but we worked very hard on researching the animal heroes of WW1 and in particular, horses. We discovered, noted and wrote about their roles, conditions and the immense hardships and deaths that were inflicted upon them. With our class reader ‘War Horse’ we endeavoured to sketch and paint horses and we are very proud of our attempts. We remember them.

     

We Remember

As the term approaches Christmas, Hockney Class created wreaths not only to celebrate Christmas but also to remember those who have fallen in all wars, in our name. Though a sombre affair we mapped and graphed the deaths of civilians and soldiers during the war from all countries involved. The final display is a culmination of all our learning and of our collective remembrance. 

 

Fit For Life - The Heart

William Harvey

We researched William Harvey because of his importance to our area (most of us were born in the hospital!) and because of his amazing research on the heart. We found that William Harvey was an English doctor in the 1600s who discovered that the heart acts as a pump to send blood in a circle all around the body, instead of the blood being used up and created by the liver as was previously thought. What an aspirational ant!

Our Blood

 To tell the tale further, we took a microscopic look at blood and exactly what is in it. We constructed some blood (using sweets) and researched its different parts. We were all adventurous aardvarks in this!

We found out that blood is a red liquid in your body that delivers oxygen and nutrients, removes waste, and helps fight infections and stop bleeding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Heart

     

Summoning all of our open-minded octopus spirit, we researched the heart further with real lambs hearts (donated by a local farmer). How else could we possibly understand the heart and all of its valves and chambers without delving into the real thing! Our reward was a real understanding of our knowledge so far and a massive appreciation of our hearts! Well done to everyone.

How can we keep our heart healthy - Exercise

Having learnt about the heart we wanted to test our heartbeat (or pulse) and how it is affected by exercise. Funnily enough, our standing heart rate was less than Mrs Wright’s which means we are fitter and have better hearts. This was a happy hippo experiment!

How can we keep our heart healthy - Food

Year 6 felt that all this research made us feel responsible for the health of our hearts and our bodies as a whole. Luckily, we were allowed to design, make and test healthy fruit smoothies. We explored how different groups of foods affect our bodies.

Did you know that eating turmeric (mainly curries) is really good for a healthy brain!

  

  

Superfoods

Our hard work on superfoods led us to a wealth of information on how to eat healthily and get good amounts of all our food groups. We shall be responsible racoons in living a healthy lifestyle in order to have healthy blood, hearts and bodies. However, as a result of our healthy fruit smoothies, many of us may avoid chia seeds and kiwi fruit smoothies – a bit gritty!!

We are all looking forward to making a healthy pasta meal in our learning landing – what shall we include that is healthy?!