Oral language#

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

• tell stories and describe experiences in detail, using words like 'first', 'next', and 'then'
• describe objects and explain how they are similar
• plan and give a talk about a topic, using pictures or notes
• join in long conversations by sharing their ideas, listening carefully, asking questions, and politely agreeing or disagreeing.

Using the skills above, they will be able to use specific words to:

• name and describe things they are learning, like 'gigantic', 'gallop', or 'recipe'
• explain how often something happens, like 'daily'
• describe places, like 'outside'
• think and talk about their learning, including what they did well and what they could improve.

Reading#

The teacher will help your child improve their reading skills. By the end of the year, your child will be able to pronounce sounds like:

• long vowels that say their name, like 'ai' in 'paint' and 'igh' in 'night'
• vowels next to each other that make 2 different sounds blended together, such as 'oi' in 'boil' and 'ou' in 'loud'.

Using the skills above, they will be able to:

• read and understand words starting with 're' and 'un', and ending in 'est', 'er', and 'ly'
• read longer words with 2 or 3 syllables, like 'costume' and 'lightning'
• fix reading mistakes by trying different sounds for letters, like the 's' and 'k' sounds in 'circus'
• figure out new words and sentence parts using story clues and sentence structure
• read longer sentences with details, using words like 'because', 'when', 'if', and 'although'
• understand different types of writing, like stories and information texts
• fix reading when it doesn't make sense by rereading, using what they know, and asking questions
• retell key details of a text by answering questions like "what happened?" "When did it happen?" "Who did it happen to?" "What happened next?"
• predict story meanings and what might happen next using words, pictures, and what they already know
• share opinions and feelings about ideas in texts.

Texts for the second year at school#

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

Children will also be reading a wide range of carefully selected books with a wider range of vocabulary, sentence structures, and punctuation. These texts could include Ready to Read Colour Wheel books at Orange and Turquoise levels.

There are examples of books on the page below.

Reading books at home in Year 2

Although your child may not bring these exact books home, they will bring texts that give them extra practise with the reading skills they have been taught.

Writing#

The teacher will help your child improve their writing skills. By the end of the year, your child will be able to:

• write all letters and numbers correctly, using a comfortable grip
• break longer words into syllables and then into individual sounds for spelling, like 'handstand', hand / stand, h-a-n-d / s-t-a-n-d
• spell words with common endings like 's', 'ed', 'ing', and common contractions like 'I'm', 'she's', 'he's', 'it's', 'we're'
• combine 2 simple sentences with joining words like 'and', 'but', or 'so'
• use full stops and capital letters correctly and independently.

Using the above skills, they will be able to write:

• short stories about 2 or more events with details and an ending
• several sentences about a topic with a main idea and some details
• several sentences about their opinion on a topic and a reason for their opinion
• plan their writing by thinking carefully about each sentence before writing it
• check each sentence as they write, fixing spelling mistakes, adding or deleting words, and using capital letters and full stops.

Resource#