It has been a brilliant, action-packed start to the beginning of Year 1 for our early readers. They have worked incredibly hard. We have been reviewing the spellings and sounds from Reception, continuing the idea that two letters can spell one sound. The main spellings we have focused on from Reception are:

'wh' as in whale, 'ch' as in check, 'sh' as in shell and 'th' as in think

Moving on to new sounds for Year 1, we have looked at two sounds and the variety of ways they can be spelled - /ae/ and /ee/ 

/ae/                                  /ee/

ay - play                            ee - tree

ai - train                                 ea - beach                                  

a__e - game                           ie - field

a - taste                                ey - keye

ea - great                       e__e - eve                

                                                        e - be

There has been lots and lots of practice reading and writing a variety of words with these sounds in them. Pointing out where these words are throughout the day, in other lessons and the stories we read. There have also been word hunts around the classroom!

It is essential that the children are surrounded by words and language, they will likely start to notice these spellings out and about in the world. If they don't, please point it out to them! If you are going to the train station, where can they find the word train? If they are going to a shop, can they find the sign for the 'games'? Going for a walk? Is there a sign for the 'field'?

The only way learning sticks is practice, practice, practice.