We will be learning to recognise Set 2 double and triple letter sounds, such as ay, ee, igh, ow, oo, ar, or, air. All of these ‘special friends’ have more than one letter but only make one sound. They are very useful to know when blending sounds to read more complex words such as chair, high and play. We will enjoy listening to a range of stories attentively and write for pleasure using phonetic sounds (Fred fingers) with increasing accuracy. 

You could support your child by: Sharing home reading with them every day, supporting them as much as necessary for them to increase confidence and fluency. Help them to break down unfamiliar words to sound them out. Help with words that can’t be sounded out phonetically, e.g. the, I, we. Read other fiction and non-fiction books for pleasure. Encourage your child to write as part of their play. Encourage development of finger skills by playing with Lego and play-doh. Practise writing letter shapes in mud and glitter.

We will be learning to count, compare and understand the composition of numbers past ten, with a focus on the composition and ordering of teen numbers. We will begin to explore ordinal numbers (first, second, third) and spatial awareness.

You could support your child by: Looking for teen numbers e.g. on houses as you are out and about. Say ‘1 group of 10 and 3 more’ when thinking about 13. Use shapes to make pictures and patterns e.g. tangrams.

Look at a calendar each day and say the day, e.g. ‘It’s the fifteenth of June.’

We will be learning to talk about how things change over time as a lot of traditional tales are set in the past. We’ll be exploring world geography via our transport theme.

You could support your child by:  Talking with elderly friends and relatives about how things have changed since they were children. Looking at maps and talking about holidays and journeys they have been on, discussing the modes of transport they used.