Lesson video

Hi there, and welcome to today's spelling lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss.

I love spelling, and I'm really looking forward to teaching you.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains.

As well as that something to write with and write on would be great.

And having someone to talk to you or something to talk to you would also be brilliant.

Let's get into today's lesson then.

In today's lesson, we're going to practise and apply spelling the -er and the -est words with alternative rules.

The outcome will be, I can use a range of strategies to practise spelling words using the suffix's, -er and -est.

Here are the key words for today's learning.

My turn, your turn.

Make sure I can hear you saying these.

Suffix, root word, adjective, vowel, consonant.

Brilliant, so let's have a chat about what these words mean then.

A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning.

A root word is the base word from which other words are formed often by adding prefixes or suffixes.

An adjective describes a noun.

It tells you what it's like.

A vowel is a speech sound produced with an open mouth, and we have a long and short vowel sounds, and our short vowel sounds are ah, eh, ih, oh, uh, they're going to be very important today.

And finally, a consonant is sound that is made by blocking air in the mouth with the teeth, tongue, lips, or palette.

So today we are going to be taking root words and turning them into adjectives.

And we're gonna be adding the -er and the -est suffix.

And we're gonna be considering some rules around where there are short vowel sounds and what we have to do with consonants then before adding those suffixes to create our new adjectives.

Here's the outline for today then.

We're gonna revise the rules for adding -er and -est.

We are then going to look at some strategies to practise.

And finally, we're gonna apply the spellings that we've been looking at within a sentence.

Let's get on with revising those rules for adding our -er and -est suffixes them.

Remember that a suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word that creates a new word and changes the meaning of that root word.

Here we can see we have the root word jump, and I'm adding my ED suffix to create the word jumped.

Here we can see I've got the root word bright, and I'm adding my -ly suffix to create the word brightly.

Here we have fear and we are adding our suffix less LESS to create the word fearless, which means to have no fear.

Notice here each time with the -ed, the -ly, and the -less, in these instances, our root word hasn't changed, but this won't always be the case.

And there are many different types of suffix as well.

So there are lots of different types of suffix, and there are rules around what will happen to the root word when we add those suffixes.

And we're gonna have a look now at some rules when adding our -er and our -est suffixes.

So we've generated four rules, or you may know four rules when we add our suffix -er to create words.

Here we have just add -er.

Great, neat, and strong will become greater, neater, and stronger.

We also have remove the E and then add -er when our root well enters in E.

We have remove the Y and add -ier.

And we have double the consonant after a short vowel.

And then add -er, ah, eh, ih, oh, uh, remember our short vowel sounds.

So great, neat, and strong, just rely on us adding that -er to become greater, neater, and stronger.

Our comparative adjectives late, nice, and wide, become later, nicer and wider.

We've removed the E and then added our -er.

Lazy, easy, and sticky.

We've added our IER or removed that Y.

And red, big, and fit, have eh and ih as our short vowels there respectively.

And so they've become redder, bigger and fitter, and we've had to double that final consonant.

We use exactly the same four rules when we are adding our -est suffix to the end of words.

So we can just add -er or -est.

We can remove the E and add -er and -est.

We can remove the Y and add -ier or -iest.

And finally, when we have our short vowel sound, we can double that final consonant and then add -er or -est.

Remember, the -est is our superlative.

It's the most of that thing.

So great, neat and strong.

Just add -est.

Greatest, neatest, strongest.

Late, nice, wide, ending in an E.

Whoosh, remove the E and add -est.

Lazy, easy, sticky, ending in that Y, making that E sound.

So we're gonna remove the Y and add -iest.

And red, big and fit, again, short vows, ah, eh, ih or ah, double the final consonant before adding our -est.

For many words, we just add the suffix -er or -est to the root word without changing it.

Remember, that's our first rule that we are looking at.

So slow becomes slower, loud becomes loudest.

Watch out, the suffix -est can sometimes sound like it's -ist.

I don't necessarily say loudest.

I don't really clearly say that E, I say loudest, which sounds like -ist, but it's our -est spelling, which creates those superlative adjectives.

So however, when that root word ends in an E, remember what we need to do.

We have to remove that E before adding either our -er or our -est suffix to create our comparative superlative adjectives.

So strange, I'm not gonna have two Es in stranger.

I'm just gonna remove the first E and then add my -er suffix.

And brave, I'm not gonna have two Es in bravest.

I need to remove the E and then add my -est suffix to create my superlative adjective.

So stranger and bravest.

Remember our rule here, remove the E and then add your -er or -est.

So what will the spelling of these words be when our -er or our -est suffix are added to create our comparative adjectives? Neat, great, strange.

How am I going to spell neater, greatest, stranger? Pause the video.

Have a go at spelling those words now.

Great job team.

So, oh, there was one more too late.

We'll talk about that one as we go through now.

So neat, I just need to add -er there.

It ends in the consonant, doesn't it? Neater, added another syllable.

Great, same again ending in a T, just add -est.

Greatest, adding another syllable.

Strange and late, though they both ended in E.

What's our rule there? Whoosh, remove the E and then add -er or -est to create stranger and latest.

So the spelling of the root word here is going to help us to spell the new adjective.

So if you look at neat and great, I just have to add -er or -est, it's our most common rule, and strange, and they both ended in E.

Remove the E and then add -er or -est.

Remember to look carefully at the root word.

So that's two of the rules that we've looked at there.

Just add -er or -est, and remove the E and then add -er or -est.

Now here's the next rule for us to revise and look at.

When the root word ends in a Y, the Y is replaced with an I before our suffix -er or -est are added.

Stormy, stormy.

That E sound there is made by the Y.

I need to remove the Y and then add IER to create the word stormier.

Pretty.

Pretty, again syllables in my E there is made by the Y.

I need to remove the Y and then add -ier.

Prettier, add another syllable.

So I have three syllables then.

Heavy, now I want to make the word heaviest.

It's my superlative, the most heavy thing.

Again, ending in a Y.

Remove the Y at -iest this time.

And lucky, I want to make the word luckiest.

It ends in a Y.

I need to remove that Y and add -iest.

So remember, it can be easier to remember this as remove the Y and add -ier or -iest.

Remove the Y and add -ier or -iest.

Stick that rule in your heads now.

So with that in mind and with the rules that we've just looked at in mind, look carefully at these.

I've got some word pairs below, late as my root word, and later as my new word, sticky as my root word, stickiest as my new word.

Lazy, lazier.

Could you pause the video and could you match 'em to which rule that this child has used? Have they removed the E and then added -er or -est? Or if they has to remove a Y and then add -ier or -iest.

Pause the video, match 'em now.

Great team.

So late has become later.

I can see here I've removed the E and then added -er to create my comparative, later.

You are later than me.

Comparing those two nouns.

Sticky, stickiest are superlative.

The most sticky.

Here, I've had to remove the Y at the end of sticky and add I before adding my -est superlative, a suffix, and lazy and lazier.

Lazy, it's that E sound made by the Y.

I've removed it to make lazy with three syllables, -ier, my comparative adjective.

So for root words that have a short vowel though, and remember, our short vows are ah, eh, ih, oh, uh, before a final single consonant.

Remember a consonant, those sounds made by the blocking of the air in the mouth.

Letters like P, T, M, N, are examples, a consonant.

That consonant is then doubled before we add either our -er or -est suffix.

So let's look at this in action.

Here we have slim, okay? I want to make the comparative slimmer.

He is slimmer than me.

Slim, eh, eh, short vowel, followed by a single consonant, M, I double that consonant and then add -er.

Here I have mad.

Madder is the word I want to make.

They are madder than me.

Ah, ah, short vow, followed by a single consonant.

I need to double that consonant and add -er.

Let's have a look at some superlatives then.

The biggest is what I want to make here for my root word, big, if if short vowel, followed by single consonant, G, double that G add, -est.

And finally hot, the hottest day of the year, the superlative, the most hot, oh oh short vow, followed by that single consonant T.

Double that T add -est, slimmer, madder biggest, hottest, with double consonants because of those short vowel sounds in our single syllable root words there.

So this can help us with the correct pronunciation.

So we really emphasise then the fact that it's slimmer, madder.

We are really emphasising those consonants.

If we forget to double the consonant, slim will become slimer like that.

And it might look like an I split E there.

So that really helps us to concentrate on really pronouncing the consonants there.

So what will the spelling of these words be when we add -er or -est as our suffixes? We have hot, mad, fit, red.

I want to make the words hotter, madder, fittest, reddest.

Pause the video and have a go at spelling them.

Think about the vowel sounds you can hear.

Off you go.

Brilliant, so they all have short vowel sounds, don't they? Ah, eh, ih, oh, uh, and they're followed by single consonants, and they're in single syllable words.

Hot, mad, fit, red.

So I'm now gonna have hotter, oh, remember to look carefully at spelling of the root words, help us, we know that.

I'm now gonna have hotter, then I'm gonna have madder, then fittest, and reddest.

Notice how here in each of the words, we had a short vowel.

So we've doubled the consonant at the end and then added our -er or -est suffixes.

So double the consonant after a short vow, then add -er or -est.

That's our rule there, remember that rule? So with that in mind is look here at these sentences, I'm gonna read them to you, and we choose the correct spelling.

Remember to consider the spelling of the root word before we've added our -er or -est suffixes here.

And remember the rules that we've looked at.

Which animal is the quietest? Our superlative there.

You are older.

The older you are, the wiser you become.

Okay, we have their comparative.

She was the fittest she had ever been, superlative.

And my school bag is much heavier than yours.

We have their comparative.

So pause the video and select the correct spellings of our comparable superlative adjectives now, off you go.

Brilliant team.

So let's have a look.

Which animal is the quietest? My root word there is quiet ending in a T, it sounds like ist, IST, but we know it's our -est suffix that we're adding today.

The older you are, the wiser you become.

That does sound like a zz, doesn't it? But the root word is wise, W-I-S-E.

I need to remove the E and then add -er.

Wiser is this one.

She was the fittest she had ever been.

Fit, fit, short vowel, ih, ih, followed by single consonant T, I have to double that T and add EST.

And my school bag is much heavier, heavy.

It's that E sound there in the root word, ending in a Y.

What do we do to that Y? Whoosh, get rid of the Y and add -ier, heavier is our comparative.

Brilliant.

So I'm gonna show you some words now, and I'd like you to choose the correct rule.

And we've got our four children here representing each of the rules that we've looked at for adding our -er or -est suffix.

Just adding -er or -est, removing the E, and then adding our suffix.

Remove the Y and then add our suffix, or no, sorry, add -ier or -iest.

And then doubling our consonant where there's a short vowel and then adding -er or -est.

So first word is sticky.

Pause the video.

How am I gonna spell stickiest? And which rule am I gonna use? Off you go.

Brilliant job team.

So sticky, it's that E sound ending at a Y.

I've gotta remove the Y and then add -ier for stickier or stickiest.

So here I've got, I've used C.

Let's have a look at another word then.

Great, I've got the word great, and I want to make greater or greatest.

Which rule am I gonna use? Pause the video, select it now.

Great, so I wanted to create greater or greatest.

Which rule do I use? I just use A, I just have to add -er or -est.

Next one.

Slim, I want to create slimmer or slimmest.

Hmm, think about that one.

Slim, ih, ih.

Think about what you can hear.

Pause the video, select the rule, and have a go at spelling that word, off you go.

Great job team.

Yep, slim, eh, eh.

Short vowel sound there.

Followed by single consonant.

I need to double that consonant before adding either -est or -er.

So it is D, the rule I'm using there.

Great job.

Next one, safe.

I want to either create safer as my comparative or safest as my superlative.

Which rule am I going to have to use here? Look carefully at the root word.

Pause the video, select from A, B, C, or D.

Off you go.

Fantastic work team.

So safe has an E.

I need to remove the E, and then I can add -er or -est to create safer or safest.

So the rule we used was B, brilliant.

So here's the practise task that we are going to have a go doing now, I'd like you to look carefully at the root words below, and I want you to put them into the correct column and show what will happen when we add both -er and -est to them.

So for instance, I might take the word fit, and I know that I can see a short vowel there.

So ih, ih, or sorry, hear a short vowel, followed by a single continent.

So it's gonna become fitter and fittest.

So I put it into that column, and I have a go at spelling my comparative and superlative adjectives from that root word.

I'd like you to do the same with the remaining root words, which are slow, easy, close, lucky, flat, strange great.

Remember to look carefully at the root word 'cause that's gonna inform you as to how to spell our new adjectives.

Pause the video, off you go.

Great job team, let's see how you've done them.

I'm hoping that you've managed to get a table that's sort of a bit like this.

Slow became slower and slowest.

We just had to add -er or -est.

Great became greater or greatest just adding -er and -est.

Close and strange both ended in E, so we had to remove the E before adding our suffixes.

Easy and lucky both ended in that Y.

So we had to remove the Y add I before adding our suffixes.

And fit and flat.

Both had ih, ah, short vowel sounds with a single continent, so we had to double that consonant before adding our suffixes.

Pause the video.

Check, see how you did make any corrections to your table if you need to.

Onto then our next learning cycle, which is strategies to practise.

Let's read the following word.

My turn, your turn.

Difficult.

Difficult, hmm.

What do you notice about this spelling? Think about the way it sounds compared to how it's spelled.

What might be tricky or if you will, difficult about spelling this word.

Pause the video and have a think now.

Brilliant.

So difficult.

The thing that I've noticed is the fact that it has the double F here, and then it has a U sound, a U spelling for a sound that doesn't quite sound like a U there.

So it has a double F in the middle.

So he has to remember that.

And then the U is the third syllable.

And it can be kind of different because it's making a different sound, isn't it? So it's making a different sound to that U.

I'm not saying difficult.

So you're really clearly hearing that ah, ah, or it's making it difficult.

It's a oh oh sound, isn't it? So be careful with that one.

It's really important that we know the spelling of this word and stick it into our memories because it's a curriculum word that's gonna appear a lot in our reading and writing.

So remember that double F and that U there in as part of our third syllable.

Difficult.

Have a look at that spelling now.

Take a snapshot, brilliant.

With that in mind, what is the correct spelling of the word difficult.

Off you go.

Absolutely, very straightforward, right? We know we just looked at it.

Think about what's tricky about it.

We've got the double F and it's got that U spelling in our third syllable.

So this is the correct spelling of the word difficult.

Don't be difficult.

So spelling rules and the ones that we've generated are really helpful for when we're spelling words, but there is no replacement for good old fashioned practise.

When we practise, we get to remember the words more easily.

We get better by noticing what's more difficult about them.

So we're looking carefully at them, and then we become more confident with using them in our writing in particular.

There are many different strategies that we can use, and I love loads of different spelling strategies, but we're gonna focus on one today.

The one that we're gonna focus on is one of my favourites, colour blocking.

Can you say that for me? Colour blocking.

We get to do some colouring in our spelling, woo-hoo.

So the colour blocking strategy helps us in several ways.

The first is the fact that we have to look really carefully at the spelling, paying close attention to it, thinking about what's difficult about it, how can we split the word up? And that's exactly what we then get to do.

We then get to block the word into different sections so we can decide how we want to chunk it dependent on those different sections.

And that's completely up to you.

It's how you visualise and how you notice it.

And it can really help us when learning longer words in particular.

So we're breaking those longer words up into different parts.

The next thing we get to do is to colour those sections in.

We can use colouring pens or colouring pencils.

And this helps us to really in our mind, visualise and reinforce those different sections.

Told you we'd get to do some colouring.

And finally, we then look back at each of the sections of the word and then we visualise each of those sections, maybe even then covering the word up to think about what those different sections look like.

And finally, we get to rewrite the word out with those visualised sections in our mind.

And then we check it against the original word to see if we got it right and make any corrections.

So we look, block, colour, look and visualise, and then write and then check.

So let's try this with our superlative word quietest.

Our root word here is quiet.

We've just had to add our -est suffix.

So I'm gonna look closely at my word quietest.

Here it is.

Hmm, how do I want to block this? How am I seeing this quietest? Okay, let's block into some chunks then.

I'm gonna do it as qui, this bit here, Q-U-I, et, est, so I've got my suffix there at the end.

Remember, it's an -est, it sounds like IST, but it's EST, quietest.

Then I get to colour the blocks in.

Here we go.

I've coloured in three different colours.

Now I need to visualise.

So I'm gonna carve the word up and I'm gonna think I've got my three blocks, qui, et, est, brilliant.

I then have a go at writing it again while it's covered up.

And then I check it against how it was originally spelled.

Yeah, I managed to spell that critically qui, et, ist, quietest.

So what order does this strategy go in? I've got visualised look, colour chunk right? All out of order.

Think about the order that this strategy would go in.

Put 'em in the correct order from one to five.

Off you go.

Great job team.

So what's the first thing you always have to do when we're practising our spelling? We have to look really carefully at the spelling.

The next one that we do is chunk.

So we think about breaking the word up.

Then we get to colour those different chunks in the most fun part, of course.

And then finally, we want to visualise it, maybe even cover it up and close our eyes to think about the different blocks and the different colours.

And then we write against that.

And of course, finally check and see how we did and make any corrections.

So we look, chunk, colour, visualise, write? So I'd like you then to choose three words to practise using the colour blocking strategy.

And this gives you a chance to be a bit independent here and take responsibility for your own learning.

Choose three words from today's learning, perhaps a curriculum word that we've looked at, difficult, and perhaps some of those -er and -est words that we've been looking at.

And have a go at using the colour blocking strategy.

Remember to look at them carefully and then block, colour, visualise, and write.

Pause the video and have a go at using this strategy now.

Off you go.

Fantastic job team.

So I chose the words quietest, difficult, and lazier.

And you can see how I blocked them here.

Qui, et, est, and I've written them against it and I got them right.

Diff, i, cult.

I can see a word in the word there, cult as well.

That's another great strategy.

And laz, ier.

So I've got my suffix there at the end, -ier and laz at the beginning, lazier.

I managed to get all of those right.

How did you do? Did you manage to spell your words correctly? Which was your favourite colour blocking? I'd like you to share that with me now, or the people around you, and make any corrections.

Pause the video, share your favourite colour block.

Make any corrections now.

Off you go, Onto then our final learning cycle, applying spellings within a sentence.

So we're gonna have a go at writing a sentence containing some of our focus spellings.

When we write the whole sentence, we have to do several things at once.

So let's make sure we're calm, ready to go, maybe you can have a brain break.

We're gonna have to remember the whole sentence here.

We're gonna have to sound out each word.

Think about our spelling rules.

Think about the rules we've looked at for adding our -er and -est suffixes.

Look out for any common exception words, so words that don't follow our regular phonics patterns and also our curriculum words.

And remember that word we've looked at today, difficult.

And finally, of course, we need to remember sentence punctuation.

Catalyst is full stops.

Any other punctuation that might be in the sentence.

Apostrophes, commas.

So I'd like you to just listen to me say the sentence that we are going to be writing out first of all.

Just use your great hearing for me.

So our sentence is, it is difficult to get fitter when the weather gets colder because I'm happiest staying inside.

It is difficult to get fitter when the weather gets colder because I'm happiest staying inside.

So we're gonna use some strategies now to help us remember the sentence.

The first is tapping it out.

It is difficult to get fitter when the weather gets colder because I'm happiest staying inside.

Pause the video and tap down now.

Brilliant.

The next one, saying it in a silly voice.

It is difficult to get fitter when the weather gets colder because I'm happiest staying inside.

Pause the video and say it in your silliest voice and see if you can make me laugh.

Off you go.

Brilliant, some brilliant voices there.

I'm finally counting the fingers on our words.

It is difficult to get fitter when the weather gets colder because I'm happiest staying inside.

It is difficult to get fitter when the weather gets colder because I'm happiest staying inside.

Pause the video and count that on your fingers now.

Make sure you don't miss any words out.

Brilliant.

So you're gonna have a chance to write the sentence in a moment.

Remember to sound each word out.

Look out for those common exception and curriculum words.

And don't forget any sentence, punctuation.

So I'm gonna say the sentence one more time.

It is difficult to get fitter when the weather gets colder because I'm happiest staying inside.

Pause the video right there now.

Great job team.

Some brilliant application of our -er and -est rules there.

Really careful thinking and punctuating as well.

So as we go through the sentence now, check your work.

Make any corrections.

It, needs to have a capital letter, is difficult.

Remember that curriculum word, double F and that U there difficult.

To get fitter, the root word there is fit, ih, ih, short vowel sound, double the T add -er.

When the weather, be careful with the spelling of weather there.

It's that EA for that S in we, weather gets colder.

Root word is cold.

We just have to add -er because big elephants can always use small exits.

Remember mnemonics to help us with that word.

I'm, be careful with this one, I am, I'm.

Apostrophe for contraction.

Here we go.

I am has become I'm, we've omitted the word A there and then have replaced it with an apostrophe.

Happiest, our root where there is happy.

It's that E sound ending with that Y spelling.

So remove the Y and add -iest for our superlative.

Staying inside.

It is difficult to get fitter when the weather gets colder because I'm happiest staying inside.

Brilliant.

How did you do there? What did you learn? What successes have you had? Have you made any magical mistakes? Share your successes and mistakes and make any corrections now.

Pause the video.

Brilliant spelling today, team.

Today we've been looking at the suffixes -er and -est.

Remember, the suffix is a letter or group of letters at the end of a word, which creates another word.

Adding the -er or the -est creates adjectives to compare things, creates comparative, and superlative adjectives.

There are four key rules when adding the -er and -est suffix.

Some words we can just add, -er -est.

If a word ends in an E, removes the E and add -er or -est.

If throw word in the Y, remove the Y, add -ier or -iest.

And finally, if there's a short vowel sound in a single syllable word with a single consonant at the end, we double that consonant and then add -er or -est.

Remember, our short vowels are ah, eh, ih, oh, uh.

Keep up the great spelling, keep up the great practise, and I'll see you again soon.