Happy New Year! We are so happy to have the children back after the Christmas holidays. We hope you all had a lovely break. The children have settled in so quickly again, and have fully immersed themselves in all the new activities we have introduced. In phonics, we introduced the new ‘special friend sounds’ ck, ss, ll, ff, and zz. The children eagerly practised identifying these sounds in words and using them in their early reading and writing activities. 

In maths, we focused on ordinality and cardinality. Through hands-on activities using the number block characters, the children explored the concepts of order and quantity, using the phrase ‘I’m bigger than you, I’m smaller than you, diddly, diddly doo!’ They also practised counting objects and understanding the total number in a set.

Our Understanding the World lessons sparked curiosity as we began our new topic on Trinidad and Tobago. The children learned about the flag and beautiful landscapes, comparing it to England. We have also been experimenting with ‘changing states of matter’, changing things from solids to liquids. We had so much fun watching ice and chocolate melt!

During free learning, the children made winter wands decorated with ribbons, sparkles and sequins, and painted sunset scenes inspired by the tropical skies of Trinidad. They have also been enjoying the new role play areas: a mini Vineyard and an airport.

We also introduced handwriting lessons, focusing on a crocodile snap grip, and letter formation. Helicopter stories became a highlight, as children shared their imaginative tales, and had so much fun acting these out. Writing sentences starting with "I can see…" encouraged early sentence structure and storytelling skills.

   

   

   

Key messages:

• A reminder that children are not allowed to play on the climbing frame or use the school equipment before and after school, including siblings.

• Please can you continue to give us donations of clean recycling to add to our junk modeling as we use it throughout the year - small boxes, toilet rolls etc. However we cannot accept anything that once contained nuts, eggs or fish.

• Please return any spare socks, pants, trousers that have been sent home previously for your child. We have no spare socks, pants, trousers/leggings left. Alternatively any donations are welcome!

• We are going to start ‘mystery reader’ soon. This is when a parent who has signed up will come and read a story to the year group on a Thursday. The idea is to build up the excitement of who it’s going to be, to help build a love of reading. If you would like to be included, please click here: 

• After half term we are starting our new topic ‘People who help us’. We would love for any parents who have a job such as a doctor, police officer, firefighter, dentist, builder etc., to talk to the children about the work they do and why it’s important. If you would be happy to do this, please email eyfs@vineyard.richmond.sch.uk