Dear Families,

Phonics in year 1 is pivotal to success in writing and reading and we do it every day. Your child learns how to recognise phonemes and graphemes quickly by sight and how to apply this knowledge to reading and writing.
Reading everyday is a perfect way to enable your child to practise recognising and sounding out the phonics they have learned as well as broadening their understanding of text and allowing them to enjoy, enter and escape to the wonderful world of books. 

Writing needs to be practised often in year 1, to increase the stamina of fine motor skills and to enable the writer to express themselves and apply all of the phonic skills they have acquired.

Below are some links to a variety of resources for phonics, reading and handwriting, which are fun and we hope your child will enjoy. 

Oxford Owl has a range of free e-books - you need to register which is easy to do, and ICT games website has a great game called 'Skywriter' amongst others, to help with letter formation.

There is a link to handwriting 'sky, grass and ground' paper and all the letters showing where to begin and to which letter family they belong - curly caterpillar, one arm robot, zig zag monsters or ladder letters. 

If you could practice a letter a day, this will help with learning the alphabet and knowing which letter belongs to which family. 

If you are unsure of anything, please ask.  We're always here to help!