Year 1

We have had a wonderfully busy and exciting couple of weeks in Year 1, filled with creativity, imagination, and lots of fantastic learning across the curriculum.

In English, the children have proudly completed our Wanted Posters to warn everyone at The Vineyard School about the mischievous lion from the story Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion. They worked hard to include plenty of descriptive adjectives, making sure their posters gave clear clues so their friends would be able to spot him easily! We have now moved on to exploring poetry and have been reading Zim Zam Zoom by James Carter. The children are becoming brilliant at spotting rhyming words and have enjoyed coming up with their own inventive rhyme pairs during lessons.

In maths, we have begun learning about 2D and 3D shapes. The children can now recognise and name a range of shapes and describe their properties using mathematical vocabulary. For example, we learned that a cube has six flat faces, while a sphere has one curved face. We also noticed that a square has four equal sides, whereas a rectangle has two long sides and two short sides.

In history, we have been finding out about the life of a Victorian girl called Maggie. We explored what her daily routine might have been like and compared it to our own lives today. The children then wrote diary entries pretending to be Maggie, describing what she would eat for breakfast and dinner and what she would spend most of the day doing.

In science, we measured different sizes of hands and feet from our classmates using cubes and talked about similarities and differences.

We also completed our Advent calendars in RE—just in time for the 1st of December—and have been practising enthusiastically for our Christmas performance. We can’t wait for you to come and watch it next week!

    

    

                          

w/b 1.12.25	w/b 8.12.25
Keywords: 2D shapes, circle, triangle, square, rectangle, 3D shapes, cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, cuboid, pyramid, faces, sides, corners, pattern past, present, beyond living memory, rich, poor   Sounds: ai, oa, ew, ire	Keywords: rhyme, poetry, rhyming words, teen numbers, numbers 1 - 20, bible, sacred text, Christians, recording, age, handsize, special, unique, friends   Sounds: ear, ure, tion, t/cious

 

Messages: 

• Please ensure your child brings their reading folders in with their reading record and books on Mondays. If folders are brought in later in the week, we’ll do our best to change the books when possible, but it can be tricky to find time once our weekly routines are underway. 
• The reading record should be signed by an adult five times. 
• Please make sure your child’s snacks are nut-free as we are a nut-free school. 
• The Learning Garden gates will close at 8:45am, where we will promptly be taking the register. If your child arrives after 8:45am, they will be marked as late on the register. If the register has already been taken by the time they arrive, we will inform the office so they can update the attendance.

 

Dates: 

• Tuesday 9th December: Year 1 Christmas Performance

• Monday 15th December: Sunstone Class Richmond Museum Trip

• Thursday 18th December: Christmas Jumper and lunch

• Friday 19th December: Last day, school closes at 1.30pm

 

Year 2

It has been a busier-than-usual fortnight and this week sees us deep into rehearsals for our Christmas show. On Monday, we welcomed a bumper crowd of ten classes to our dress rehearsal! The performers kept their cool and looked fantastic in their finery. All the children managed well balancing their lines, lyrics and stage directions. Thank you to all families who have provided wardrobe for their children.

We have just completed a fun English instructions-writing topic, where the children have practised combining relevant writing skills for how to make a pizza. This has complemented the half term’s DT food technology learning nicely, where children have been learning about how to make a pizza. This past week involved hands-on, fun learning about how to make dough. The pizzas will be made in class w/c 8th December - keep a look out for your child’s list of preferred toppings to bring in! Thanks in advance to our intrepid volunteers for their shuttle runs to the teaching kitchen! 

Last Friday, we welcomed Year 3 classes to each of our classrooms. Their visit was to share a story that they had just published. In just one school year, it was clear to see their newly-acquired writing and history skills - and their justifiable pride in sharing their work to an enraptured audience. 

We have added to our History learning about Significant People by finding out how Florence Nightingale contributed to the lives and knowledge of many people. Next week, we will compare and contrast her life with Mary Seacole. 

This fortnight, our new Science curriculum saw the children work like real scientists and observe how the behaviour of woodlice in a ‘choice chamber’ allowed us to see which environment they preferred - in real time. Having learnt about scientific investigations and what constitutes a fair test, this was the opportunity to predict and observe in real life. Our following lesson will involve designing a hedgehog shelter! It has been positive for the children to experience a practical side of scientific problem-solving. 

We look forward to sharing our Key Stage One Christmas production (for Y2 families) with all who can make it: Wednesday 10th December, 09.30 in the main hall.

    

                        

                        

   

                           

w/b 01. 12.25	w/b 08.12.25
Keywords: shape, vertices, sides, faces, The Snowman, Christmas, hedgehog shelter, problem-solving, design Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, significant, hygiene, pizza, mozzarella, Vaisakhi.	Keywords: shape, vertices, sides, faces, The Snowman, Christmas, fiction, habitat, living things, animals, plants, Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, significant, hygiene, pizza, mozzarella, Guru Granth Sahib, Sihk.

 

Messages: 

• As the weather gets colder and wetter, please ensure your child comes to school with an appropriate, named coat. 

• Please ensure your child brings their reading record and books on Mondays to exchange them and so class teachers can check and stamp their records. 

• Reading records should be signed by an adult five times per week. 

• All long hair needs to be tied up. Half up and down - needs tying completely back. 

• Please ensure your child has a book bag. We cannot accommodate rucksacks due to our limited space. 

 

Dates: 

• w/b 09.12.25 Pizza making in DT (Turquoise Monday; Pearl Tuesday )

• 10.12.25 Key Stage One Christmas show performance for Y2 families 

• 18.12.25 Christmas jumpers and lunch

• 19.12.25 School closes for holidays at 1.30pm and re-opens Monday 5th January