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Video: Year 1 oral language, reading and writing #

Watch this video to find out what you can expect your child to learn during Year 1 at school.

Year 1: Oral language, reading and writing

What you can expect your child to learn in Year 1 at school.

Oral language#

Ideas to support oral language at home 

With your child, you could:

  • talk together often in the language that works best for you and your child
  • ask your child open-ended questions – for example "What was your favourite part of today?"
  • play 'I spy' by describing objects
  • introduce new words and objects related to their interests
  • encourage them to retell a favourite story or describe a favourite toy or memory
  • give simple, multi-step instructions and play games like 'Simon says' to practise listening skills.

The teacher will focus on expanding your child's oral language knowledge and skills. For example, by the end of the year your child will be able to:

  • ask questions like “What do you mean?” or “Can you explain?” when something isn’t clear and more information is needed 
  • explain cause and effect using 'if... then...' statements – for example, if someone shares their toys, then others might want to play with them 
  • do short presentations on their own 
  • listen well, ask and answer questions, and share ideas 
  • ask for help with their learning and talk about challenges and solutions 
  • talk about their learning, feelings, what they like to do, and what was easy or hard for them. 

Reading#

Ideas to support reading at home 

Expand your reading activities to:

  • last for 10 minutes at least without interruption
  • be an enjoyable, interesting and special time.

With your child, you could:

  • share the reading or see whether your child wants to be read to
  • talk about how pictures in picture books can add extra details that aren't in the words
  • visit the library and let your child choose books to share
  • read aloud messages from family
  • point out words on signs, shops and labels.

If your child gets stuck when reading a word:

  • wait a few seconds, ask them to sound out the word – help them to break the word up into individual sounds and blend the sounds together to make the word, for example, p-ai-n-t – paint
  • check – does the word now makes sense in the sentence
  • support them to try again if they miss a sound – if they don't know what the word means, talk to them about the meaning.

The teacher will focus on expanding your child’s reading knowledge and skills. For example, by the end of the year your child will:

  • tell short and long vowel sounds apart like 'a' in 'mad' versus 'a' in 'made'
  • read the sounds made by 2 letters together like 'ch' in 'chip' and 'fl' in 'flag'
  • read some long vowel sounds like 'ee' in 'bee' and words ending in '-ed' and '-ing'
  • read simple words like 'picnic' by putting sounds together
  • fix reading mistakes using what they know about sounds and letters and reread sentences that don't make sense
  • read longer sentences with 2 ideas joined by words like 'and' or 'but'
  • know the difference between stories, poems, and facts
  • answer 'how' and 'why' questions about what they read and ask about new words to figure out their meanings from the story
  • guess what happens next in a story and connect with characters and events.

Texts for the first year at school#

Books used in the first year at school will include decodable texts that contain sounds, letter patterns and word parts that have a meaning (morphemes) that children have already learnt. This will help your child practise reading words with the sounds, letter patterns and morphemes they have been learning about in a text.

Once your child can read books with common letter patterns (like 2-letter sounds, groups of consonants, and some long vowel sounds), they’ll start reading books that use a wider range of words, sentence styles, and punctuation These texts could include Ready to Read Colour Wheel books up to Green level. 

The books they bring home will give them extra practice with the reading skills they have been taught. There is an example book on the page below.

Reading books at home in Year 1

Writing#

Ideas to support writing at home 

With your child, you could:

  • encourage them to practise writing by having felt pens, pencils, crayons and paper available
  • write notes to your child and ask them to write a reply
  • create a scrapbook with pictures and encourage your child to write words, short sentences or stories under the pictures to share with you
  • write a shopping list, supporting your child to write down the sounds they can hear in the words
  • spell words with magnetic letters
  • email, text or write to relatives or friends.

The teacher will focus on expanding your child's writing knowledge and skills. For example, by the end of the year your child will:

  • handwrite letters and numbers neatly using a good pencil grip
  • break down simple words into sounds and spell them
  • spell some common tricky words like 'was', 'of', and 'said'
  • think about who they are writing for and why
  • plan their writing by talking about it first
  • write simple sentences to tell a story, explain something, or share an opinion
  • use full stops and capital letters correctly
  • check each sentence as they write.

Resource#