In Year 1, we encourage children to develop a pleasure in reading and writing by listening to and discussing a wide range of poems, fiction and non-fiction texts, such as traditional tales and stories. Children are taught to spell words containing the 40+ phonemes, the days of the week and the common exception words. We also learn the names of the letters of the alphabet and how to use letter names to distinguish between alternative spellings of the same sound. Alongside developing our spelling, we learn when to add prefixes and suffixes, how to join words or clauses using 'and', and we also practise writing dictated sentences from memory.
We expand our knowledge of vocabulary, punctuation and grammar by learning about the different sentence types and how to use a capital letter and a full stop to punctuate our sentences correctly, as well as learning when to use a question mark or a an exclamation mark. We also focus on when to use capital letters, such as for names of people, places, the days of the week, and the personal pronoun ‘I'.
This is all done through a range of tasks including some role play, group and independent work. This all builds up to a 'final draft' in which we show off the skills we have learnt during a sequence of lessons.
We ensure children develop security in these skills by using half termly KIRF (Known Instant Recall Facts) tests.
Handwriting is also a focus in Year 1, there is an expectation that by the end of the year children will be able to:
- Form lower-case letters in the correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place.
- Form capital letters.
- Form digits 0-9.
- Understand which letters belong to which handwriting ‘families’ (i.e. letters that are formed in similar ways) and to practise these.
Good presentation is always encouraged and praised during writing sessions, though handwriting is explicitly taught during daily handwriting practice.
We follow https://www.letterjoin.co.uk/ for interactive resources showing the correct formation of cursive letters.
Below are a small selection of the texts that we enjoy in Year 1 Literacy...