Purple Oaks Online English Lessons

May your life and family be filled with the hope and joy of this season today and always!

Purple Oaks wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance.

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Happy 1st Birthday to us!

One year ago today, I launched my online English lessons on a zoom meeting with my family. That was after weeks of designing the website, figuring out payment plans, writing down the core values and all the hundreds of little things that they don’t tell you comes with running a business 😰

But today I can safely say: the launch of these lessons has truly changed my life for the better.

Purple Oaks is where I combine my love for English and creativity with my desire to help people, and honestly, there are few things I have ever invested so much time into as this. It has a special place in my heart and I’m excited to keep watching it grow.

Here’s to many more successful years of impacting young minds and creating opportunities!

We’re just getting started 😁

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My students flash card for the new vocabulary word he’s learning this week.

15 Days of Vocabulary Building

Day 1

Today’s new vocabulary word is: Bellwether.

bellwether /ˈbɛlwɛðə/ (noun):
something that is used as a sign of what will happen in the future.

Example sentence: University campuses are often the bellwether of change.

Synonym: Indicator

Purple Oaks Three Core Values

- Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
- Respect: due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights or traditions of others.
- Service: the action of helping or doing work for someone; an act of assistance.

What you see with us is what you get and we have you and your child’s best interest at heart. You can be sure of that!

Key Stage 2, where ages 7-11 fall under, is made up of Year 3, 4, 5 and 6. English is still a daily lesson in Key Stage 2.

Reading
Throughout KS2 the children move from decoding words to interpretation. At the start of year 3 most children are reading around 300 of the most frequent words: by the end of year 6, most are confident, fluent readers.

Children will learn to:
- Read new words independently
- Understand themes, plots and ideas
- Recognise the use of figurative language
- Use structure
- Compare different writing styles
- Find information in a piece of non-fiction

Writing
Writing develops through KS2: handwriting becomes clearer and neater, spelling is more accurate, and punctuation is used correctly. The children write longer pieces now, using characters, dialogue and more imaginative vocabulary.

Children will learn:
- Paragraphs
- Punctuation
- Connectives
- Clauses with commas
- Adverbs
- Possessive apostrophes
- Direct and reported speech
- Active and passive voice
- Speaking and listening

Continued from the last post!

KS1 Speaking and Listening
This will include telling stories and reading aloud. As the children progress, they will put on short performances and speak in front of an audience.

An example of this is the Recite my Year 2 student had last year. Everyone in his class had to learn a poem and recite it in front of their class.

Children learn to:
-Speak clearly
- Listen carefully to others
-Join in class discussions
- Take part in drama activities

By the end of KS1 they will be writing longer pieces with a beginning, middle and end.

Tomorrow I will be sharing about Key Stage 2 😊

English is made up of reading, writing and speaking and listening. All of these are covered in Key Stage 1 which is Year 1 and Year 2( ages 5-7).

KS1 Reading
Children learn:
- to sound and name the letters of the alphabet
- groups of letters
- letters which can make different sounds
- to use phonics to help them read unfamiliar words
- how to identify syllables
- to read around 150 similar words automatically
- how to describe characters and plot
- to read non-fiction books for information

KS1 Writing
Children learn:
- to hold a pencil correctly
- form the letters of the alphabet
- begin to use some punctuation
- write familiar words correctly and attempt new words

More on Speaking and Listening in tomorrow’s post! I hope this was helpful 😊