Foundations

Listen and do

Hearing the difference between sounds, following two instructions in one go, and telling something in order.

Phase 1 · Listening and blending

Before letters: hearing sounds, hearing rhyme, and pushing sounds together to make a word.

Phase 2 · The first letter sounds

s a t p i n, then m d g o c k — and the first words you can read with them.

Phase 3 · Two letters, one sound

sh, ch, th and ng — and the long vowel sounds ai, ee, igh and oa.

Phase 4 · Longer words

No new sounds. Blending words with two consonants together, like flag, drum and toast.

Phase 5 · The same sound, spelled another way

Split digraphs like a-e and i-e, and the other ways to write sounds you already know.

The Hen and the Seed

A story to be read aloud by a grown-up, with questions answered by pictures and by talking.

My first sentence

What makes a sentence a sentence: words in order that say something, with a capital at the start and a stop at the end.

Longer and shorter

Comparing lengths by eye, lining things up to be fair, and measuring with cubes before there are any rulers.

O'clock, and the parts of the day

Morning, afternoon and night, and reading a clock when the long hand points straight up.

Shapes around us

Naming shapes by their corners and sides, and noticing them in real things.

Adding is putting together

Two groups become one group, and the answer is how many there are now. Counting on, doubles, and the missing part.

Naira notes

The five, ten and twenty naira notes: telling them apart, which is worth more, and adding two together.

Parts and wholes

A number can be split into two parts and put back together again. This is what adding and taking away really are.

Taking away is finding what is left

Some go, and you count what stays. Counting back, taking away everything, and the number that is missing.

Ten and some more

The numbers past ten: counting to twenty, ten-and-three, and the trap of writing fifteen as 105.

What counting is

One number for each thing, and the last number you say is how many there are.

Sorting and counting

Putting things into groups, counting each group, and saying which has more, which has fewer, and by how many.

Living and not living

Telling living things from things that have never been alive.

Our five senses

The five senses and the body part we use for each.

Parts of a plant

Naming the roots, stem, leaves and flower, and what each is for.

What animals need to live

The things every animal needs — food, water, air and a place to live.

Squashing, bending and stretching

Changing the shape of things by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.

What things are made of

The everyday materials around us — wood, metal, plastic, glass — and what they are like.

Solids and liquids

Telling solids from liquids by how they behave.

The Sun in the sky

The Sun gives us light and warmth by day, and why we should never look straight at it.

Today's weather

The kinds of weather we see and how it changes from day to day.

Hot and cold

Things that give out warmth, and telling hot from cold safely.

Light and dark

We need light to see, and light comes from light sources like the Sun.

Loud and quiet

Sounds all around us, and telling loud sounds from quiet ones.

Push it, pull it

Making things start moving, stop and change direction with a push or a pull.

Looking closely like a scientist

Using your senses to notice, sort and describe things carefully.