Year 1 English Activities Overview

Below you will find 10 days’ worth of English based activities for your child. These cover a range of topics and are split into mild, spicy and hot challenges. Please choose one depending on the appropriate level of challenge for your child and the time / resources you have available at home. Every other day is phonics revision through the Floppy’s Phonics online extra practice zone. If you are unable to access this then revise the sounds shown for that day and allow your child to read and write some words using those sounds. Information on how to access these online resources and the flashcards are at the end of this document.

Day 1 Write out the Term 4 spellings for your child to read. Friend, school, put, push, said, says and they. Mild Challenge: Look at each spelling, sound out the letters, cover the spelling and write it out from memory.Spicy Challenge: Write a sentence for each spelling. Hot Challenge: Write a short story including all of the spellings.

Day 2 Go through the sound flashcards and actions with your child. Make sure they are saying the example word and not just the sound. (ai as in aim) On the Oxford Owl extra practice zone, look through Level 4: Book 21 with your child. This includes the sounds ay (as in tray), oy (as in toy), ea (as in eat) and ie (as in pie). Hot Challenge: Write a short story including words with the graphemes ay (as in tray), oy (as in toy), ea (as in eat) and ie (as in pie).

Day 3Print out the paragraph below or write it out for your child to see. Mild Challenge: Read through the paragraph, pointing out the errors and correcting them.

Spicy Challenge: Write out the paragraph again correcting all the errors. Hot Challenge: Write out the paragraph again correcting all the errors. Write a list of instructions to help the person who wrote the paragraph improve their writing. i went to tha chops to buy ay bit of bred. my mommy sed I neeed to make sure i tayk the korrect monee to pay 4 it

Day 4 Go through the sound flashcards and actions with your child. Make sure they are saying the example word and not just the sound. (ai as in aim) On the Oxford Owl extra practice zone, look through Level 4: Book 22 with your child. This includes the sounds ow (as in bow), ew (as in newspaper), ew (as in screw) and ou (as in mouth). Hot Challenge: Write a short story including words with the graphemes ow (as in bow), ew (as in newspaper), ew (as in screw) and ou (as in mouth).

Day 5 Print out the paragraph below or write it out for your child to see. Mild Challenge: Read the paragraph to your child and ask them the questions. Spicy Challenge: Help your child read through the paragraph and answer the questions. Hot Challenge: Ask your child to independently read through the paragraph and answer the questions. There was a surprise last night at the Fairy Tale town vegetable show. Farmer Fred had brought his enormous turnip to show the judges and it was the size of a car! The farmer had planted his turnip in March. He worked hard to feed and water it every day. He was shocked by how big it grew. The farmer needed the help of his wife and his grandchildren and even some of the farm animals to pull up the turnip. Then they had to move it to the show. Fred used his tractor to pull the turnip.

1. Can you find another word in the text that means ‘enormous’?2. Where does the vegetable show take place?

3. Who is the first character that we meet in the text? The farm animals Farmer Fred The farmer’s wifeThe farmer’s grandchildren

4. Which fairy tale do you think this newspaper report is about?

Day 6 Go through the sound flashcards and actions with your child. Make sure they are saying the example word and not just the sound. (ai as in aim) On the Oxford Owl extra practice zone, look through Level 4: Book 23 with your child. This includes the sounds ir (as in bird), aw (as in yawn), eer (as in deer) and are (as in scarecrow). Hot Challenge: Write a short story including words with the graphemes ir (as in bird), aw (as in yawn), eer (as in deer) and are (as in scarecrow).

Day 7 Print out the paragraph below or write it out for your child to see. Mild Challenge: Read the paragraph to your child and ask them the questions. Spicy Challenge: Help your child read through the paragraph and answer the questions. Hot Challenge: Ask your child to independently read through the paragraph and answer the questions. One day, there was an old farmer who had worked hard all his life. He was very ill. He had three sons. He wanted them to be good farmers. He said to them, “There is a treasure in my land. Promise me that you will look for it.” Sadly, the father died. The sons looked for the treasure. They dug and dug the soil. “What will we find?” they said to each other. Soon, they had dug up all of the land. They had not found any treasure. They were upset. “All that hard work for nothing!” they said.

1) Find and copy the word that the author used to describe how the sons were feeling when they did not find the treasure.

2) How many sons did the farmer have? 1, 2 or 3? 3) Why do you think the sons ‘dug and dug’ in the soil?

4) Number the steps below from 1 to 4 to show the order they happen in the explanation.

The sons dug and dug.The farmer sadly died.The sons couldn’t find the treasure. The farmer told his sons to look for some treasure.

Day 8 Go through the sound flashcards and actions with your child. Make sure they are saying the example word and not just the sound. (ai as in aim) On the Oxford Owl extra practice zone, look through Level 4: Book 24 with your child. This includes the sounds ce (as in dance), ea (as in bread), o (as in onion) and ed (as in dropped and rained). Hot Challenge: Write a short story including words with the graphemes ce (as in dance), ea (as in bread), o (as in onion) and ed (as in dropped and rained).

Day 9

Mild Challenge: Draw your own fantasy pet and write adjectives you could use to describe your pet. Spicy Challenge: Draw your own fantasy pet and write some sentences to describe it. Hot Challenge: Draw your own fantasy pet and write a paragraph you describe it and explain why you have chosen this pet.

Day 10Draw your own Pokémon/Hatchimal. Write a list of instructions on how to care for it using these sentence starters. FirstNextAfterThenFinally

Extra creative writing prompts.