Seriously Cool English
Year 2 Phase 6
As they develop their knowledge of grammar and punctuation, as well as their speaking, reading, and writing skills. Your child will become more familiar with spelling words using their phonics skills, and will be able to recognise and spell many common and tricky words such as because. They will be encouraged to explore their own ideas through creative writing and poetry, and will be taught how to use apostrophes correctly. Much of their learning will come from reading, talking, and listening.
Here with Willow the puppy we are going to show you a variety of simple things you can do at home to support your child’s developing English skills.
Reading in year 2
Children will be working with a range of material, including stories, non-fiction and poetry. They will be looking at stories with familiar settings, traditional tales, and different stories by the same author.
Your child will:
become more fluent in reading as their phonic knowledge increases
read words of two or more Syllables ( A syllable is a single, unbroken sound of a spoken (or written) word. Syllables usually contain a vowel and accompanying consonants.
read words containing common suffixes (-ed, -ing, -y, -ness, -ful, -ment)
read a range of poetry, stories and non-fiction
self-correct inaccurate reading
predict what will happen in a story on the basis of what has been read so far
Traditional tales offer a fantastic opportunity to excite children with the long history of shared reading experiences.
Traditional tales are stories that have been told and retold for many, many years. Often, they are passed down through generations by storytelling as well as reading and writing.
Spelling in year 2
Spelling patterns
In Seriously Cool English we are going to share some spelling lists, which it will cover various spelling patterns, including the following:
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Silent letters k, g and w (as in 'knock', 'gnat' and 'write')
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Words ending le, el, al and il (as in 'meddle', 'tunnel', 'animal', 'pencil')
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Verbs ending y which then changes to ies and ied (as in 'copy', 'copies' and 'copied')
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Dropping the e off the end of a word when adding -ing, -ed, -er (as in 'hiking', 'hiked' and 'hiker')
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Words which need a consonant to be doubled before adding -ing, -ed (as in 'pat', 'patting', 'patted')
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Unusual uses of vowels, such as 'o' being used for the 'u' sound ('other') and 'a' being used for the 'o' sound ('warm')
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Words containing Suffixes part 1 & Suffixes part 2 (groups of letters added to the end of a word) including -ly, -ment, -ful, -ness and -less
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Spelling common exception words such as because, clothes, people, every, again, could, should, would, many and great.
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Words where apostrophes are used to show contractions, such as: 'do not' changing to 'don't'
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Words ending -tion such as ('fiction')
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Homophones, which are pairs of words that sound the same, but are spelt differently (such as: 'hear' and 'here') Homophones part 1 & Homophones part 2.
Jack and the Beanstalk is one of the most famous folktales ever told. It is a traditional tale that has been told to children at bedtime for generations.
Originally, it was an English fairy tale.
In 1734, the story of Jack and the Beanstalk appeared in print as “The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean”. Eventually, though, people realised that it was a bit of a long name and they trimmed it down.
The Three Little Pigs story is a traditional tale that has been told to children at bedtime for generations. The moral lesson of this story is that hard work and dedication pay off. Whilst the first two pigs build their houses quickly and easily, the third pig chooses the more difficult, but stronger method of construction, which in the end proves to be safer and more secure.
You can read The Three little pigs ebook
In the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks is walking through the woods one day when she stumbles across an empty house.
She goes into the house and finds three bowls of porridge. The first one she tries is too hot, the second one she tries is too cold, but the third one is just right!
She then sits down on the different chairs, but one is too hard, one is too soft, but the last one she tries is just right.
Then Goldilocks gets sleepy so she goes upstairs and tries out all the beds, and she finds that one is too big, one is too small, but one is just right.
Eventually, the three bears who live there come home and get quite a fright at the sight of Goldilocks!
Your child will:
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learn to spell words with suffixes, words in the contracted form (don't, can't, etc.), words with the possessive apostrophe (the girl's book) and homophones (words that sound the same, but are spelt differently).
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start joining lower-case letters and write words where the capitals and lower-case letters are proportional to each other
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use a variety of punctuation, including: capitals, full stops, exclamation marks, question marks, commas for lists, apostrophes for the contracted form and the possessive
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use conjunctions (when, if, that, because, or, and, but) to join two clauses
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write stories, poetry and accounts of personal experiences
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evaluate and improve their work
Try this at home:
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Make writing part of a game: play shops, schools or cafes and make writing fun
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Buy your child their own notebook to write stories or make a fact file about their favourite animal or football team
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Encourage your child to start writing a diary.
