Year 1

A very warm welcome to all our Year 1 families and children! It has been a wonderful start to the new school year and we are so proud of how well the children have settled into Year 1. They have shown such enthusiasm, independence and excitement for their learning already.

In English, we have been exploring the beautiful book Flotsam – a book with no words! Its interesting illustrations have given us lots of opportunities to use our imaginations, share ideas and develop our storytelling skills. The pictures have also provided some wonderful writing prompts for our very first piece of Year 1 writing. We have been incredibly impressed with the children's creativity and effort.

In maths, we have been re-familiarising ourselves with place value to 10. We have been counting forwards and backwards, recognising quantities and matching the corresponding numeral to an amount. We have also completed our first piece of maths book work, taking great care to form our numbers correctly and remembering to write one number in each square.

Across the wider curriculum, we have enjoyed immersing ourselves in our first geography, art, computing and science lessons. It has been lovely to see the children so engaged and curious. Please take a look at our learning bulletin to find out more about the exciting topics we will be exploring this half term.

     

                                       

w/b 14/9/26

Keywords: adjective, seasons, map, Yayoi Kusama, Richmond

Sounds: set 1 sound recap - all single sounds and the special friends; sh,ch,th,nk,ng,qu

Talk homework: here are some talking points to discuss with your child about our learning over the past 2 weeks.

• Who is Yayoi Kusama?

• Where is the Vineyard school?

• What are the 4 seasons? 

• What is an adjective?

 

Key messages:

• Reading folders need to be brought in on Monday and will be sent back home on Tuesday stamped and with 2 new books - a ReadWriteInc book matched to your child's reading level and a reading for pleasure book for them to choose and enjoy. 

• Please record a simple message in your child’s reading record once you have read with them, we recommend reading 5 times a week.

• Please make sure your child’s snacks are nut-free as we are a nut-free school. As a reminder, children will only have afternoon snack until October half-term. Please consider the amount of food supplied as they only have 5 minutes to eat. 

• The Learning Garden gates will close at 8:50am, where we will promptly be taking the register. If you are late, please go through the office to not disrupt the register or learning.

• PE days: Wednesday and Friday (both classes).

• Library days: 

  • Diamond: Tuesday

  • Sunstone: Monday

 

Year 2 

What a fantastic start we have had to Year 2! Over the past two weeks, we have really enjoyed getting to know the children and helping everyone settle into their new classrooms and routines. We have spent time discussing our expectations for the year and, together, agreed on our Year 2 class charter. This is now proudly displayed in our classrooms and is something we will continue to refer to throughout the year.

In English, we have immersed ourselves in Flotsam, a fascinating wordless picture book. The children have loved exploring the illustrations and discovering how a story can be told without any words at all! We are now working towards writing our own beach setting descriptions, focusing on using nouns, adjectives and verbs to make our writing interesting.

In maths, we have been exploring numbers through counting in tens, place value and partitioning. The children have been developing their understanding of how numbers are made up of tens and ones.

We have also begun our new science topic on living things. In geography, we have been exploring the United Kingdom, using atlases to locate the UK and begin developing our map skills.

Coming up: Next week, we will begin an exciting new English story featuring the superhero Traction Man. In maths, we will build on our place value learning by exploring number lines. We are looking forward to another busy and exciting week of learning in Year 2!

     

     

 

Key messages from the Year 2 team: 

• Please ensure your child brings their reading folders in with their reading record and books on Mondays. 

• The reading record should have five comments every week.

• 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 safely house rucksacks due to our limited space. 

 

Key dates:

• Wednesday 23rd September - Individual & Sibling Photographs

 

Useful links: 

• This half term’s learning bulletin which contains the knowledge and skills that your child is being taught, key vocabulary and suggested activities/reads.