English

Phonics

This term, our Year One children will be developing greater confidence when recognising and spelling the 74 phonograms. We will also be learning the following spelling rules:

• qu Sooky La La - Q can never go anywhere without U
• I and Y - I can never go at the end of an English word, Y takes its place
• ck and K - ck goes at the end of a syllable/word, after a short vowel; K any other time
• dge and Ge - dge goes at the end of a syllable/word, after a short vowel; Ge any other time

The Year Two children will be revising rules taught in Year One, to ensure these rules are in their 'automatic file'. They will begin exploring some new rules later in the term, such as:

• tch and Ch - tch goes at the end of a syllable/word, after a short vowel; Ch any other time
• ar and 'a' 3rd sound - Use a when there is 2 consonants following, otherwise use ar 3rd sound

Reading

This term, our Reading Workshops are centred around developing positive reading habits. We are exploring what a 'good fit book' is, developing our reading stamina, and will be exploring a range of mentor texts to help us with our writing. 

The reading strategies we are learning about this term are:

• Make and adjust mental images
• Use punctuation to enhance phrasing and prosody
• Use pictures, illustrations and diagrams
• Use non-fiction text features
• Check for understanding - back up and re-read
• Using dictionaries
• Nouns, verbs and adjectives

We will be sending Decodable Readers and Home Studies Books home soon . Please look at the Home Studies page for more information. A COMPASS post will explain this in further detail.

Writing

This term, we will be busy creating our Writer's Notebooks. The children are excited about decorating the covers of their books with photos and images of things that are special to them. We have been filling the pages with lots of 'seeds' - ideas for generating writing pieces, and the children are itching to start developing writing pieces.

Our writing sessions are structured with lots of opportunity for free writing, and for children to freely explore their writing interests, using the seeds from the Writer's Notebook.

We will be having a genre focus on Snapshot, Procedural and Recount writing throughout the term.