One of the most important forms of home learning is reading. We would like all children to read for at least 20 minutes (to you or to themselves if they are older). Ask them questions about what they've read (italics for more challenging questions):

• What happened? (Can you summarise in four sentences? First... Next... Then... Finally...)

• Were there any words you didn't know/ you need to clarify? (Encourage children to re-read the sentence with the word in it to try to understand if from the context themselves before telling them what the word means - they can also look at pictures to help with what it means, and think of words they do know that are similar to it).

• What characters were there? What were they like? (How do you know this?)

• What powerful word/ phrases did the author use? What's the effect of this on the reader?

• What's one sentence that stood out to you? What makes it so powerful?

• What do you predict will happen next? What clues in the book make you think this will happen?

Please also have a look at our 'Story Time' page where you can find books read by your Reception teachers.

High Frequency Words Spelling Year 1

In Year 1 the children should still be encouraged to use their phonics sounds to spell words. However, there's a set list of words that the children need to be able to spell correctly by the end of the year. Please use this as a reference so that you can support them with the correct spelling during home schooling.

The children should also know how to spell the days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.