Year 1

We have had a very busy 2 weeks, with all our lovely learning and the Christmas performance in full swing! Thank you to all the families who have come to watch our Christmas performances, we hope you have enjoyed it as much as we loved putting it together. We have also had our last Vineyard Adventurers session in Year 1, finishing it off with some hot chocolate and sweet flatbreads. Thank you to the parents who have kindly volunteered during these sessions! For English, we introduced the children to a poem called ‘Zim, Zam, Zoom’. We explored adjectives using all our senses to describe what a firework scene would look like. We have finished this off with writing our own poem and publishing it. We have consolidated our knowledge on fact families, finding 8 different ways to write a number sentence using addition and subtraction. We use a part-whole model to help us figure out where to plug in the number in a number sentence. For example, when we are writing a subtraction sentence, we take away from the whole. But when we are writing an addition sentence, we add the 2 parts to make a whole. We are learning healthy eating in DT and will be making our fruit salads using our preparation skills from previous weeks. Please see the message below regarding what we need to be able to carry out this DT lesson. We have made fact files of different animal groups in science. We learned that the Bible is a sacred text for Christians, so we created our very own special book for our classes. Based on our knowledge of Victorian schools, from our history lessons, we have decided which school we would prefer to go to and not surprisingly, The Vineyard school was a clear winner.

                   

                   

w/b 02.12.24

Keywords: beaks, feathers, legs, wings, birds, compare, similarities, differences, 

Sounds: cious/tious, au, ck

 

w/b 09.12.24

Keywords: fin, tail, fish, race, racism 

Sounds: wh, ie, kn, ph

 

 

Messages: 

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

After Christmas holidays Year 1 children will not be having an afternoon snack, they can either have the school fruits or one from home at morning snack.

DT: For the fruit salad, please could children bring these on Monday 16th December:

• Three different items of soft fruit (children will be cutting these fruits using a butter knife so please make sure it is soft enough e.g. strawberries, bananas, peeled peaches/kiwi, etc.).

• A butter knife to cut with

• A chopping board

• A container to put the fruit salad in after they have made it

 

Dates: 

Library: 

• Amber: Monday

• Sunstone: Tuesday

• Diamond: Thursday 

16.12.24 - children will be making their fruit salads

20.12.24 - is the last day of school

 

Year 2

We have had a great couple of weeks in year 2, with everything from practising lines for our Christmas performances to making pizzas and having class pizza tastings. The children have worked hard and had lots of fun! Thank you to all the families who made it to our Christmas performance; the children loved showing you what we have been working on.

In maths, the children have been exploring subtracting two-digit numbers. We initially used dienes to help us, showing the physical action of removing. As the lessons progressed, we introduced the idea of exchanging. Again the children started this process practically with the designs, and then we began to use drawings to represent the exchange between tens and ones and the subtraction as a whole.

Our English writing is currently focused on the story of ‘The Snowman’. The children explored the sequencing of events throughout the story, looked at how the snowman and James moved through the story and the places they went to. The children will be using the story as inspiration for their own narrative, and they designed their own winter place that they could travel to. The children came up with some creative and topical ideas, such as snow palaces and Scandinavia to see the northern lights! We have been exploring possessive apostrophes in our writing, expressing that items might belong to particular people, i.e. the snowman’s cosy, green hat is on his head.

In science, we have been exploring different habitats. Looking at the range of coastal habitats that can be found in the UK. We have explored beaches, cliffs, rockpools and the sea, looking at their similarities and differences in the environment and with the living things we might find there. Why not ask your children what living things they can find in rock pools? 

Last week, the children explored how pizza dough is made, and were lucky enough to have a workshop from an expert chef come in and show the children all the steps. They rolled their sleeves up and got stuck in, exploring the different textures and smells involved in the process. The children were initially surprised by the interesting smell of the yeast but soon loved the textures of the dough once it was all mixed together. Thank you to Sil and Katie for coming in and sharing your expert knowledge. We then brought the pizza to the classroom, and the children made their pizza, rolling out the dough, adding their carefully chosen toppings, being super patient while their pizzas cooked, and finally enjoying our tasting session in the classroom. A big thank you to all the parents for volunteering their time to help us. These activities could not happen without you, and one huge thank you to Kat for making the dough for us!

As we continue to look at Buddhism in our RE unit, we have been exploring sacred texts. The children have learnt that Jataks are a group of tales and verses with the Buddha's teachings. The children looked specifically at the tale of The Talking Tortoise. We have discussed the moral of this tale and throught about what advice we might give to the tortoise. We have begun to explore Humanism, introducing the idea of a community/collective with no God, or holy text. We have explored how Humanists place value on morals to explore right and wrong and look to science to explain phenomena.

    

    

   

w/b 09.12.24

Spelling rule: find, mind, behind, old, cold, gold, hold, told

Keywords: 

Tens, ones, subtraction, demons, representation, exchange, narrative, sequence, The Snowman, possessive apostrophes expanded noun phrase, dough, pizza, toppings, tasting, Buddhism, sacred text, Humanism, values, community, morals, science, coastal habitats, beaches, rockpool, cliffs, the sea. 

Number Facts: subtracting two digit numbers

Literacy focus: possessive apostrophes,  i.e. The snowman’s cosy, green hat is on his head.

 

w/b 16.12.24

Spelling rule: -

Keywords: 

Adverbs, narrative, editing, capital letters, full stops, Tens, ones, subtraction, demons, representation, exchange, caring, right and wrong, reflection, habitats, minibeast,  recording data

Number Facts: subtraction

Literacy focus: adverbs i.e the snowman fly quickly through the sky.