English for kids, class 1 to 5: speaking and reading

Key points

• English has 26 letters: 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 21 consonants.
• Phonics links letters to their sounds so you can read new words.
• Blending joins sounds to read a word; segmenting splits a word to spell it.
• A silent e at the end often makes the vowel say its own name, as in kite.
• Digraphs such as sh, ch, th and ck are two letters making one sound.

Key points

• CVC words have a consonant, a vowel and a consonant, such as pen and sun.
• Word families share an ending, so cat, bat and mat rhyme.
• Sight words such as the, said and was must be remembered.
• Most plurals add s; words ending in s, sh, ch or x add es.
• Look, cover, write, check is a good way to learn spellings.

Key points

• A noun names a person, animal, place or thing.
• A proper noun names one special person or place and starts with a capital letter.
• Plural nouns mean more than one; most add s or es.
• Use a before a consonant sound and an before a vowel sound.
• If you can say a or the before a word, it is likely a noun.

Key points

• A verb is a doing word; every sentence needs one.
• Verbs change for present, past and future: walk, walked, will walk.
• Use am with I, is with he/she/it, and are with we/you/they.
• An adjective describes a noun: a tall tree, three mangoes.
• Add er to compare two things and est to compare three or more.

Key points

• A sentence makes complete sense and has a subject and a verb.
• The usual order is subject, verb, object.
• There are four kinds: statement, question, command and exclamation.
• And, but and because join ideas into longer sentences.
• Pronouns like he, she, it and they replace nouns.

Key points

• Start every sentence with a capital letter.
• Names of people, places, days, months and festivals begin with capitals.
• Use a full stop for statements, a question mark for questions and an exclamation mark for strong feeling.
• Commas separate items in a list.
• An apostrophe shows a short form (don't) or belonging (Riya's bag).

Key points

• Reading means understanding, not only saying words.
• Look at the title and picture before reading and ask who, what, where, when and why after.
• The main idea is what the passage is mostly about; details support it.
• Clues from nearby words help you guess a new word.
• Pause at full stops and commas when reading aloud.

Key points

• Use short, complete sentences when you speak about yourself.
• Follow a pattern: greeting, name, age and class, family, likes, thank you.
• Answer questions with a full sentence.
• Speak slowly, clearly and look at your listeners.
• Listening carefully is part of good speaking.

Key points

• Look at the whole picture first, then at the details.
• Answer who, what, where and when.
• Use place words such as in, on, under, behind and next to.
• Use is or are with an ing verb to say what is happening.
• Adjectives make a description more interesting.

Key points

• Rhyming words have the same ending sound, like cat and hat.
• Poems and songs use rhyme to be fun and easy to remember.
• Vocabulary is the set of words you know; read daily to grow it.
• Opposites are antonyms and similar words are synonyms.
• A dictionary lists words in alphabetical order with their meanings.

Key points

• Please, thank you, sorry and excuse me are polite words to use daily.
• Greet people with good morning, good afternoon or good evening.
• Use may or could when asking for something.
• Speak respectfully to elders and teachers and do not interrupt.
• Reply politely with yes, please or no, thank you.