Year 1/2

Welcome to Year 1/2!  

Our class teacher's are Mrs Kestell and Mrs O'Connell and our teaching assistants are Mrs Parker and Mrs Buliruarua.

We have COOL time  (Choose Our Own Learning) within our classroom where we are able to access different provision and practice lots of new skills.   

Please remember! 

To read every day at home and have your book in school every day.    

To have you PE in school every day.   

 

Useful websites  

Spelling Shed – every child has their own log in which can be found in their reading record books  

Timetables Rockstars – every child has their own log in which can be found in their reading record books  

Phonics play - A useful website to support phonics at home. Talk to your class teacher if you're not sure which phase your child is on!   

Oxford Owl - This has books that your children can read at home.   

Top Marks - This has a range of games that can support your child.   

Read Write Inc sounds - We use the Read Write Inc scheme to teach reading and writing. This Youtube video supports you with teaching the sounds at home.   

Read with Phonics - There are some good games to practice blending of the phonemes and segmenting the graphemes.  A free app is also available to download for android and iOS tablets.  

Teach your Monster to read - More support with reading.  

Alphablocks - This is a brilliant resource with videos explaining the letters and sounds. It allows the children to practice the sound recognition and blending.  

 

Games to play with your child 

Oral Blending games 

Robotic talking - Words are made up from sounds and children need to be able to hear these sounds individually. Sometimes when you are playing you can say words as if you were a robot (saying the sounds separately) and see if your child can work out what you are saying. Stick to short simple words that only have a few sounds in them. Make sure you are saying the letter sounds (p-i-g) not the letter names (pee-eye-gee). E.g.  

Pass that p-i-g to me.  

Sit d-ow-n.  

Point to your t-ee-th.  

Hop like a f-r-o-g.  

As your child becomes familiar with this robot talking, see if they can say words in robot talk themselves?  

I spy – Say the rhyme ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with ______’ allow your child plenty of opportunities to guess what you have chosen, for example, ‘something beginning with t’ could be a tree, toy, tent or train.  

Point out print everywhere - Talk about the written words you see in the world around you. Ask your child to find familiar words on each outing such as ‘McDonald’s' 'shop' 'dentist'  

Playing with words – Encourage your child to sound out the word as you change it from mat to fat to sat; from sat to sag to sap; and from sap to sip.  

 Phoneme recognition games 

Looking for letters – Ask your child to look for English letters whilst you are out and about.  Can they find letters from their own name, letters they have learnt in school or letters that specific words begin with?  

Fast letter sorting- You will need:  

A large piece of paper with three hoops drawn on  

12  small pieces of card with letters written on (4 sets of 3 letters)  

Choose 3 sets of letters – 2 which the child knows and one new one. Spread the letter tiles out on the table making sure they are all the correct way up. Encourage your child to sort the letters into the correct hoop using both hands, saying each letter as they move it.  

Letter discrimination - You will need: A 3x3 grid  

Write the letter you are learning with your child onto half of the spaces (for example c). Fill the rest with other letters. Ask your child to cover all the c’s with a counter as quick as they can.  

   

Ladder letters -You will need: A ladder template (see example)  

Make a pile of letter tiles (use a mixture of known and new letters). Place a counter at the bottom of the ladder and move up a rung for every letter they can read correctly. This game can be changed to covering spots on a ladybird, petals on a flower – go with your child’s interests if possible.  

Letter sound bingo - You will need: A 3x3 grid for each player (see example) & counters or coins  

Write some of the letters into the spaces on each card, making each card slightly different. The ‘bingo caller’ says each letter in turn and the players cover the letter up. The winner is first to fill their board. To make this game easier for new readers, show them the letter for them to match.  

 Tricky word games 

Bingo – You will need: A board for each player and counters or coins.  

The list of words your child is currently learning, for example their spelling list  

Write some of the words into the spaces on each card, making each card slightly different. The ‘bingo caller’ says each word in turn and the players cover the words up. The winner is first to fill their board. To make this game easier for new readers, show them the word for them to match.  

Matching pairs – You will need: Small pieces of card or paper with the words your child is currently learning written on each.  

Each word will need to be written twice so you can search for a matching pair. Turn all the cards face down on the table. And take turns to turn over two. When a matching pair is found that player can keep them. The winner is the person with the most pairs at the end of the game.  

Snap -Make a set of cards with words your child is learning written on. Ensure that each word is written on two separate cards. Shuffle up the cards and share them out. Each player takes turns to turn over their card, put it down and read the word. If it matches the previous card played, the first person to notice shouts 'snap!' and wins the pile. This game is best used to practise words your child knows fairly well, rather than new ones, as it's quite fast-paced.
Once your child knows a word reliably, you can take it out of the current pack of cards and bring in a new word. Every so often, play a game with the 'old' cards, so that your child doesn't forget them. It's a good idea to try and discard a known word and add a new word every day, once your child is getting the hang of learning new words.  

 Further ideas… 

Create a book together - Fold pieces of paper in half and staple them to make a book. Ask your child to write sentences on each page and add his or her own illustrations.
Make up stories on the go - Take turns adding to a story the two of you make up while riding in a car or bus. Try making the story funny or spooky