What are Heart Words in Year 1?

Words you read with your heart rather than your head — not sounded out letter by letter, but recognised instantly, like "the", "my" and "I". Many don't follow regular phonetic rules, so children learn them through repetition and exposure. The list grows as the child moves through reading stages.

What are Speed Words?

If Heart Words are about instant recognition, Speed Words are about fluency — reading a whole short list smoothly, without pausing to work each one out. Each stage comes with its own list.

How can parents help with Heart Words and Speed Words at home?

Jin's teacher asked us to read Heart Words fluently to her, help her practise spelling them and gently point out the tricky parts — the sounds that don't behave as expected. For Speed Words: help her read the whole list confidently, then try it backwards and in random order.

What free Little Learners Love Literacy resources can families use at home?

Handwriting posters for each letter, Heart Words flashcards by stage, Milo's alphabet songs and craft sheets. We printed the posters 16 to a page, backed them with coloured card and added magnet strips to make palm-sized cards for the partition by the stairs.

Heart Words and Speed Words: Year 1 Reading Homework in NZ

MHJ ENGLISH GUIDE Free Resources

Little Learners Love Literacy — Home Activities

All resources below are available free at littlelearnersloveliteracy.com.au

Handwriting Posters (A–Z): One poster per letter, each featuring Milo's animal friends. Print 16-per-page for palm-sized cards — cut, back with coloured card, and attach a magnet strip. Stick them somewhere your child passes every day.

Heart Words Flashcards: Stage 1–2 cards are yellow, Stage 3 green, Stage 4 blue. Download only the stage your child is on. Read them aloud together, practise spelling, and point out the sounds that don't behave as expected.

Milo's Alphabet Songs: 26 songs — one per character — available on Spotify. Print the lyrics at A4 half-size as a cue card. Add a QR code linking to the Spotify playlist so you can sing along together — or attach a sound pen sticker if you have one.

Milo's Craft Sheets: Colouring and activity pages featuring the same characters your child knows from school. Check with your child first — if the activity is already planned for class, save it for revision rather than doing it ahead.

✓ How We Use Them

Printed the handwriting posters 16-per-page, backed with coloured card, added magnet strips, and stuck them on the partition by the stairs — somewhere Jin passes throughout the day.

Downloaded Stage 1–2 Heart Words flashcards. One read-through together is enough — the teacher will send home what's needed each week.

Lyric cards printed at A4 half-size — one song at a time, starting with the sounds Jin has already learnt at school.

Saving the craft sheets for after school starts — only doing ones Jin hasn't done in class yet.

Free downloads → littlelearnersloveliteracy.com.au littlelearnersloveliteracy.com.au

The last day of term, Jin came home with everything she'd made in her first month of school tucked under her arm — in the middle of crumpled drawings, she took out a slim exercise book labelled Homework Learning. Inside, her teacher had printed and glued everything neatly: what Jin is currently learning at school, and how we — her parents — can help at home.

The Alphabet

Jin is learning the phoneme (the sound a letter makes) and the grapheme (the letter or letters that write that sound) — and then how to take those sounds and blend them together to form a word. This is the foundation of reading.
Her teacher asked the parents: watch a short YouTube clip together. Just a few minutes, every day.

Heart Words

Heart Words, as the name suggests, are words you read with your heart rather than your head. Not sounded out letter by letter — just recognised instantly, the moment they appear on a page. Words like the, my, I. They can't be fully decoded through phonics alone because many don't follow regular phonetic rules. So children learn to internalise them through repetition and exposure. The list grows as the child moves through reading stages.
Her teacher asked the parents: to read them fluently to Jin, help her practise spelling them, and gently point out the tricky parts — the sounds within a word that don't behave the way you'd expect.

Speed Words

If Heart Words are about instant recognition, Speed Words are about fluency — reading a whole list smoothly, without pausing to work each one out. Each stage comes with a short list.
Her teacher asked the parents: to help her read the whole list confidently, then to try backwards and in random order.

While I was writing this, Jin wandered over and quietly read through her own book. She pointed at the sound cards — Milo the Monkey, Sally the Snake — and said each one aloud without being asked.

During the holidays, I downloaded each alphabet character from the Little Learners Love Literacy website and made them into palm-sized magnet cards. I stuck them on the partition by the stairs — the spot where Jin plays most. She'll wander over when she's bored, and I'll hear her muttering to herself: mmm Milo, Pittsa Penguin (she can't quite manage Peter the Penguin yet). That's how her language grows — a little every day.

We'll read through the next stage of Heart Words and Speed Words together once or twice — not to get ahead, just so she can answer confidently when her teacher asks. So she can raise her hand the way her friends do.

It's not about being first. It's about not feeling left behind.

한국어 요약

학기 마지막 날, Jin은 입학 첫 한 달 동안 만든 것들을 한 아름 안고 왔다. 구겨진 그림들 사이에서 Homework Learning이라고 적힌 얇은 공책을 꺼냈다. 안에는 지금 학교에서 무엇을 배우는지, 부모가 집에서 어떻게 도울 수 있는지를 선생님이 깔끔하게 출력해 붙여 두었다.

첫째는 알파벳이다. 글자가 내는 소리를 익히고 그 소리를 이어 단어로 읽는 법을 배우는데, 이것이 읽기의 바탕이다. 선생님은 짧은 영상을 매일 몇 분씩 함께 보라고 했다. 둘째는 Heart Words다. the, my, I처럼 소리 내어 한 글자씩 풀지 않고 보자마자 알아보는 단어들로, 파닉스 규칙을 따르지 않는 게 많아 반복해서 익힌다. 선생님은 유창하게 읽어 주고, 철자를 연습하고, 예상과 다르게 소리 나는 부분을 짚어 달라고 했다. 셋째는 Speed Words다. 단계별 짧은 목록을 멈추지 않고 매끄럽게 읽는 연습으로, 거꾸로도 순서를 섞어서도 읽어 보라고 했다.

방학 동안 Little Learners Love Literacy 웹사이트에서 알파벳 캐릭터를 내려받아 손바닥만 한 자석 카드로 만들어 계단 옆 칸막이에 붙였다. Jin은 심심하면 그 앞에 가서 "mmm Milo" 하고 중얼거린다. 다음 단계 Heart Words와 Speed Words도 한두 번 같이 읽어 두려 한다. 앞서가려는 게 아니라, 선생님이 물을 때 친구들처럼 자신 있게 손을 들 수 있도록. 1등이 되려는 게 아니라 뒤처진다고 느끼지 않게 하려는 것이다.

Yussi

Writer · Social work student, Massey University

A mother of three girls and a Korean immigrant making Mairangi Bay home — writing about starting school, home learning and everyday life on Auckland's North Shore.

More about Yussi →

Frequently asked questions

What are Heart Words in Year 1?: Words you read with your heart rather than your head — not sounded out letter by letter, but recognised instantly, like "the", "my" and "I". Many don't follow regular phonetic rules, so children learn them through repetition and exposure. The list grows as the child moves through reading stages.
What are Speed Words?: If Heart Words are about instant recognition, Speed Words are about fluency — reading a whole short list smoothly, without pausing to work each one out. Each stage comes with its own list.
How can parents help with Heart Words and Speed Words at home?: Jin's teacher asked us to read Heart Words fluently to her, help her practise spelling them and gently point out the tricky parts — the sounds that don't behave as expected. For Speed Words: help her read the whole list confidently, then try it backwards and in random order.
What free Little Learners Love Literacy resources can families use at home?: Handwriting posters for each letter, Heart Words flashcards by stage, Milo's alphabet songs and craft sheets. We printed the posters 16 to a page, backed them with coloured card and added magnet strips to make palm-sized cards for the partition by the stairs.