Crawley Ridge Infant School

YEAR TWO

The children have had a busy week, recounting our Marwell Zoo trip in English. They focused on directions in Maths, learning that to turn in an anticlockwise direction you have to follow your left hand. In Science the children created a binary tree which helped them answer questions about minibeasts. The children learnt about the impact Florence Nightingale and her nurses had on the hospital in Scutari during the Crimean War. During Art the children were able to practice their sketching skills during a number of technics from hatching to stripling. The children are discovering what makes a good leader in RE and during PSHE the children discussed how it feels when a friend moves away. During PE we have been practising for our Sports Day morning.

YEAR ONE

Another hectic week for year 1 - it just never seems to slow down at the moment! In English we have finished our learning based on the story “Clean Up!” all about a little girl who is horrified by the plastic waste being washed up on the beaches near her grandparent’s home in Jamaica. Rocket (the girl) organises a clean up crew and tries to educate the people of the island all about what they should be doing with their rubbish. In maths we have been comparing number, looking at one more and one less for numbers within 100, as well as using the symbols < > and = to compare numbers. In other areas of the curriculum we have explored how to stay safe on the beach in geography, whilst in science we have been discovering our next animal group, finding out what makes birds different from other creatures. And on top of all of this we have spent time showing off our phonics skills during our phonics screening check. Have a wonderful weekend.

RECEPTION

Ahoy, parents and guardians! This week in Reception, our young buccaneers embarked on a thrilling pirate-themed adventure that has left us all in awe. From crafting treasure maps to decorating pirate flags and parrots, the children have truly embraced the spirit of the high seas. Their week began with the creation of intricate treasure maps, where imaginations ran wild plotting hidden treasures and secret paths. This was followed by the design of colourful pirate flags, each one a unique symbol of their pirate pride fluttering proudly in our classroom breeze. The addition of beautifully decorated parrots brought a burst of tropical colour and lively chatter to our pirate lair.

Midweek, the children embarked on daring treasure hunts, deciphering clues and solving riddles to uncover hidden loot. Their pirate writing skills were put to the test as they penned tales of adventure, with each story more swashbuckling than the last. To cap it off, they set sail in their own mini-boats, testing their engineering prowess on the high seas of our classroom floor.

Friday marked the pinnacle of our pirate extravaganza with Pirate Day! The children transformed into bona fide pirates with eye patches, bandanas, and even some makeshift hooks and peg legs. However, the day took a thrilling turn when Doodle, our beloved classroom toy, went missing! Quick to action, the children created detailed "Wanted" posters describing Doodle’s distinctive features and personality traits. Their collaborative efforts paid off when Doodle was found safe and sound, much to everyone’s relief and delight. Yours piratically, The Reception Crew.

NURSERY

This week, we have continued our learning about land vehicles, making tracks with trucks and enjoying vehicle puzzles. The children have been super entrepreneurs, inventing their own cars with special features.

We have moved on to reading Amazing Aeroplanes, and talking about other vehicles that fly, like hot air balloons, rockets and helicopters. We have started making a class papier-mâché hot air balloon and the children have adored decorating and flying their own kites.

The children used the construction materials outside to build their own plane, ready for journeys to all sorts of destinations. What a fun week!

**EXCITING NEWS** We have achieved ‘Asthma Friendly School’ status thanks to the hard work of Mrs Suffield and her team. We are one of only 8 schools in Surrey Heath, Hampshire & East Berkshire to gain this award 🎉 🥳 🙌🏻

YEAR TWO

The year 2 trip to Marwell Zoo was a fantastic day. In addition to learning that a giraffe’s tongue is as long as their arm, the children spent the day observing the animals, searching for the sleeping tigers and gasping over the size of the rhino. Next week the children will be writing about their trip, recounting the day from start to finish.

This week the children have been interpreting data presented in the form of pictograms with different key values in Maths. In Science the children went on a minibeast hunt, plotting out different microhabitat locations. During Art the children learnt about Maria Sibylla Merian, marvelling over how detailed her prints were. It was fascinating to discover that to this day Scientists continue to value her contribution towards the research of mini creatures.

YEAR ONE

Back with a bang this week! We thoroughly enjoyed listening to the adventures the children got up to over half term and they have come back refreshed and raring to go. We chose our English text, ‘Clean up! By Nathan Bryon,’ to fit in with world Ocean Day and the children had a wonderful time on Friday collecting litter out of the ocean (school field) for our experience lesson. We are now working with numbers up to 100 in maths and the children are securely transferring their skills from previous learning. We had a wonderful trip to the ACS school in Egham on Thursday and the children were exceptionally behaved. They thoroughly enjoyed playing on the adventure playground and were very brave to attempt the fireman’s pole. The animals were so tame and roaming free so the children were able to groom the donkey, feed the goats and pet the bunnies and lambs. The last Phonics QR code came home this weekend, so please do have a practise.

RECEPTION

Our story of the week has been We’re Going to the Volcano which the children have loved. We have talked about what volcanoes are and the children have loved making different vehicles to get them to the volcano.

They have made tracks to get there, completed volcano art work, taken part in a hunt for the story pictures around the classroom and explored all vehicles.

On Wednesday the children went to the KS1 playground for their playtime to start getting used to it, ready for next year. We also completed our first sports day practise on the field, the children were brilliant at listening to the instructions and taking part.

Just a reminder that next Friday is Pirate Day! We look forward to seeing the children’s costumes and hearing their best jokes.

NURSERY

This week, we've come back with a bang and jumped straight into our half term topic of Transport and Journeys. We have looked at land vehicles this week, reading The Hundred Decker Bus by Mike Smith. As a class, we have designed our own multi-decker bus, with levels consisting of ice cream shops, an ocean, a cage of crocodiles and even a bouncy castle! We have enjoyed fixing the bikes in our bicycle repair shop, and have had a go at drawing our own maps of where we would travel in our vehicles and, of course, lots of imaginative play with our toy cars and tractors.

We have achieved a Modeshift STARS 🌟 accreditation for our efforts to increase walking 🚶‍♀️ cycling 🚴🏻 and other forms of sustainable travel 🧳

YEAR TWO

In English this week the children have been creating fantastic Horrid Henry adventure stories. The destinations Henry has gone to have been super interesting. The children have been learning about statistics in Maths and the different forms of representing data. The children have discovered that the neater the presentation, the easier it is to interrupt the data. Year 2 finalised their experience in Science this week and have decided that water is one of the main resources a seed needs to grow. It would seem that either not enough water or just too much can have an impact on the germination of the seed. In Geography the children were given an orienteering challenge and had to follow clues to discover letters placed in our grounds. The children reviewed their stop motion films in Computing, they have decided that it wasn’t as easy as it originally looked to do. In addition to learning in the classroom, the children were able to learn about balance, patience and resilience during the circus skills session. To finalise the week, the children were given their Project books, and we cannot wait to see what exciting ideas they come up with.

YEAR ONE CONTINUED

YEAR ONE

Just as we thought we were easing our way gently to half term, the grown-ups decided to have our busiest week yet in Year 1. The week began with a visit to Grandad’s Island for our writing. We had a wonderful time exploring the jungle, sleeping in hammocks and cooking over the campfire! In maths we have been using our positional language to describe and draw pictures; to show we know our lefts from our rights and our aboves from our belows. In science we have been making sure we know the months of the year and that we can put them in the correct order. We have also used our scientific enquiry skills when observing the weather and the seasonal changes over the course of the week. In geography we reviewed our learning about the United Kingdom, as well as making sure we know how to stay safe on the beach. And on top of all of this we also squeezed in a visit from the police, a sponsored bounce and we even worked on developing our circus skills. We will definitely need a rest next week - thank goodness it’s half term. Enjoy a restful week off and make sure you return ready for your last half term in Year 1.

RECEPTION

What an exciting week! Our story of the week has been The Tiger Who Came to Tea. We have enjoyed making masks, completed word hunts, created wanted posters for the tiger and played tea parties.

We looked at sharing into groups in maths and then looked at doubles, creating our own doubled butterflies.

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to have a visit from a Police officer who taught us all about stranger danger and what we should do if we are lost. We loved seeing the flashing lights and trying on the clothes!

This week our caterpillars turned into butterflies which was very exciting, on Friday we released our butterflies on the field.

The children loved taking part in circus skills on Thursday, learning how to spin a plate, the starting skills of juggling and balancing.

NURSERY

This week, we have continued our learning about looking after our planet and our oceans. We thoroughly enjoyed litter picking around school and we’ve had a super go at drawing the world and labelling the countries that we know. We have created our own ocean food chains and learnt about which animals hunt other animals. We have also been very lucky this week to have two visitors – the Police and the circus! We’ve had such fun.

Getting to know the people who help us 👮🏿‍♀️ 👮‍♂️ 🚨

YEAR TWO

What an exciting week we have had! In English we have continued reading Horrid Henry series and have been planning our own Horrid Henry story based Horrid Henry’s Holiday. The children were delighted to go camping in Emerald classroom and had lots of fun playing card games, saving the picnic from word hungry flies and serving up a BBQ. In maths we have continued to learn about time. This week we have focussed on telling the time to the nearest 5 minutes and working out durations of time. In science the children have continued to observe their plants and concluded their investigation into what plants need to grow healthily. In DT we evaluated our healthy wraps and discussed the new skills we had learnt while making our healthy wraps. In geography we have been learning about aerial views.

YEAR ONE

The glimmers of sunshine this week have tied in very nicely with our new story, Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies, where Syd discovers Grandad’s special treasures in his attic and they journey to a wild tropical island where they enjoy an adventure together. The children have been learning about Grandad’s special artefacts including a gramophone, a suitcase, a hat and a birdcage. The depth of language in the children’s writing is growing by the day now, they have come such a long way since September. Please do continue to practise reading real and alien words with your children at home. Remember to encourage them to take their time and look for the digraphs prior to reading. The children have been exploring fractions by halving and quartering quantities in maths, ensuring they have equal groups. Our travels around the UK have continued and moved into Northern Ireland and the children were fascinated that they have eaten foods which are traditionally from Ireland. In Science we were looking at the parts of a tree and their properties and comparing them to flowers. Another jam-packed week yet again.

RECEPTION

This week our story has been Mad About Minibeasts! We have loved learning about lots of different minibeasts, where they live and have even gone on a hunt to find some.

We have been practising ensuring our letters are the right size, on the line and start and finish at the correct place.

In drawing club this week we have focussed on the book Superworm, creating our own super minibeast, thinking of a monster who comes to visit and a vehicle to escape in.

In maths we continued to look at 2D and 3D shapes, then we moved onto sharing equally, we loved practising this in class.

NURSERY

At the start of our week we continued our learning about sea animals and the ocean; creating our own aquarium models, cleaning sea creatures and practising our scissor skills by making paper jellyfish.

We have talked about how rubbish sometimes ends up in the ocean and the effect this has on the animals that live there. We have discussed what we can recycle and reuse, and have had such fun creating new and wonderful things reusing cardboard, plastic and other materials. We have cleared our ‘ocean’ of litter and talked about what does and doesn’t belong in the sea.

YEAR TWO

We considered Horrid Henry’s character during English this week and decided he had a bit of a cheeky personality. After the children finished planning their descriptions, they edited their work and then wrote it up in their neatest hand writing. Maths was all about time and reviewing what the children understood about o’clock, quarter past, half past and quarter to. The children then learnt how to tell the time by counting in 5s. In Science the children discovered how seeds dispersed to ensure that the plants had the best chance to regerminate. During our Geography lessons the children learnt about how they can use Spider Maps to represent location and distance from a set point. During DT the children finalised planning their healthy wraps, ensuring that they had all the ingredients and equipment needed. The children have really enjoyed creating their wraps to enjoy on our return home.

YEAR ONE

This week Year 1 have gone very, very green with our learning. In English we have continued our story “The Wall and The Wild” by Christina Dendy. We have followed the story of Ana, a little girl who likes everything to be “perfect”. But the more she developed and changed her garden, the less she liked it, pulling things out and throwing them over the wall. Eventually the wild begins to grow over the wall into Ana’s garden so she climbs over to have a look and is amazed by what she sees; a wild and wondrous garden of freedom and colour. The children loved their opportunity to create their own wild garden on our experience day, planting seeds, expressing themselves with different colours and exploring the world through the use of their senses. Our focus in Maths has been on halving even numbers, looking very closely to ensure that our two groups are equal and fair. In Science we have been answering the question “Do all flowers have the same number of petals?” Having observed lots of different flowers and having carefully counted their petals, we came to the conclusion that they do not all have the same number of petals. Finally, continuing with our botanical theme, in Art we have been designing and making the most fantastic 3-dimensional sculptures of flowers and plants.

RECEPTION

What a week we have had! Our story of the week has been What the Ladybird Heard which has led us to talk a lot about farms, this tied in nicely with our school trip to Wellington Country Park perfectly. The children had a brilliant day out in the sunshine, they played in several large play areas with big slides, visited a farm, went on a train ride, saw some big dinosaurs and went on their first coach ride. We were so impressed with the children’s behaviour, the coach driver even commented how brilliant they were.

On returning to school, the children have drawn maps from our trip and have written about what they saw. They have looked at different animals and what offspring they have as well as listening to different animal sounds to guess what it is!
In our phonics this week we have been continuing to practise our sentence writing, recapping our sounds and putting them into practise in word writing.
In maths we have been looking at and comparing different shapes and how we can turn these to make different pictures.

All of our caterpillars have now entered the chrysalis stage and we have therefore moved them into a net, ready for them to turn into butterflies. The children have loved watching them grow and change and commenting on them at different stages.

NURSERY

The start of this week saw us enjoying further learning on hot places, enjoying activities like counting spots on the leopards, making playdough savannah habitats for our animals and making animal masks.

This week, we have been reading One Day On Our Blue Planet... In The Ocean. We have enjoyed fish and jellyfish crafts, ‘fishing’ using magnets and building sea creatures from Duplo. We have also transformed our home corner into a travel agent! The children have loved booking their holidays to a hot or cold place and packing their suitcases, thinking carefully about what they would need.

Lunch 🥙 🥗 🥪 done ✔️ now, off to the Dinosaurs 🦕 🦖

The children and staff safety arrived at Wellington Country Park at 10am, the weather is definitely on their side ☀️