English in Year 1

Reading strategies Blend the phonemes Decoding the words Looking for clues in the pictures Chunking – split the words into smaller parts Compare the words with other words that they have seen Reading the whole sentence and then going back to the word

Comprehension Understanding the text Engaging with the text Critically evaluating the text Look at clues on the page & knowledge in your head!

You make informed guesses about the text. PREDICTING You make informed guesses about the text.

SCANNING Your eyes dart around a text searching for a specific word/phrase/number.

Making links with other books Talk about other books that you have read which have a similar story line or characters

QUESTIONING You ask questions about a text to clarify your ideas.

When you put yourself in someone else’s shoes and feel what they feel. EMPATHISING When you put yourself in someone else’s shoes and feel what they feel. happy jealous sad angry

VISUALISING You see a picture in your mind to help gain a better impression or understanding of the text.

When someone makes a point that isn’t obvious and you have to read ‘between the lines’ to find the meaning INFERRING

Sleepy Tom was late for school again. What do we know about the person in this sentence? Why was he sleepy? How do we know that he is often late for school?

John had got up early to learn his spellings John had got up early to learn his spellings. He was very tired and decided to take a break. When he opened his eyes again the first thing he noticed was the clock on the chair. It was an hour later and nearly time for school. He picked up his two books and put them in a bag. He started pedalling to school as fast as he could. However, John ran over some broken bottles and had to walk the rest of the way. By the time he had crossed the bridge and arrived at class, the test was over. What was John trying to learn? How many books did John pick up? How did John travel to school? What did John do when he decided to take a break?

Supporting your child at home … Focus on letter sounds and names Choose books that are interesting to your child Provide a comfortable area for reading enjoyment Set a routine time for reading, eg. at bed time or after dinner. Reading Games Encourage your child not to guess/rush the words

Writing in Year 1 Shared writing Guided writing Writing for a purpose Different genres- adventure, fantasy Handwriting Topic

Grammar Conjunctions- ‘and’ Capital letters and full stops Capital letters for names, places and the days of the week (not writing them randomly) Question marks, exclamation marks Adding –s or –es to make words plural

Adjectives The boy went to play football with his friends. The active boy went to play football with his cheeky friends. Similes- using ‘as’ or ‘like’ The dinosaur had sharp claws The dinosaurs claws were as sharp as a knife

Composition saying out loud what they are going to write about composing a sentence orally before writing it re-reading what they have written to check that it makes sense and going back to make it better

Sounds Encourage children to use their phonic knowledge to write words Common exception words

Keep English practical and have fun! Cooking and writing instructions Comic strips-children can make their own Cut out words from a magazine and make sentences from them Local library Choose a flower from your garden and research/write about it Favourite character-adjectives/similes, character profile Letters to friends/characters