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Hello everybody, welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Mrs. Richards, and today we are investigating silent letters.

This learning might seem challenging, but I know that you're going to really enjoy it.

And the strategies that we look at together are going to really help you to spell these words.

So let's get started.

We're going to start by exploring key vocabulary, then we will investigate and generate rules about silent letters, and then set our spelling words.

In this lesson you will need an exercise book or paper a pencil, and definitely your brain.

So pause the video here and go and get any resources that you might need.

Okay, let's have a look at our key vocabulary.

There are three key terms in today's lesson that we need to use and understand.

My turn, your turn.

Silent letters, phonics, diagraph.

Well done for joining in.

Let's have a look at their meanings.

Silent letters are the letters within a word which cannot be predicted by its pronunciation.

They're the letters that we can't hear when we're saying the word aloud.

Phonics.

Phonics is the teaching of sound-letter correspondences.

And diagraph.

Diagraph means two letters representing one sound.

Okay, let's get started.

Let's investigate and generate some rules.

What do these words on the board have in common? I'll read them aloud to you now.

Crumb, doubt, knee, knight.

Here the spelling of knight means the armoured soldier on horseback.

Reign, gnarled.

Reign is the period of time during which a monarch, a king or a queen is on the throne.

And gnarled means twisted, like the gnarled branches of a tree.

Write and wrong.

Here this spelling of write means to write your spellings.

So what might these words have in common? Pause the video here, try saying these words aloud and looking carefully at their spelling.

Off you go.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

We're going to move quite quickly during this part of our learning, because these are things that we should know already.

If you're finding any of this hard or you just need a reminder, go back and have a look at previous lessons to help you.

So let's start with our grey words, crumb and doubt.

We're going to sound them out so that we can hear where the silent letter might be.

Lets go.

Crumb.

C-R-U-M-B, crumb.

There are four sounds but five letters.

Which is the letter that I can't hear when I'm pronouncing this word, C-R-U-M-B, crumb? Did you spot it? Let's try this one, doubt.

D-O-U-B-T.

Only three.

But again, we have five letters.

Listen, D-O-U-B-T, doubt.

Can you spot the silent letter? Lets have a look.

Yes, both of these words had a silent B, and that B came towards the end of the word next to a T or after the letter M.

There are other words which follow the same pattern, a silent B.

Bomb, thumb, numb, plumber and debt.

Debt means that I owe money, I have a debt.

Okay, let's try the next set, knee and night.

Did you spot what these had in common? They had a silent K.

Let's sound out the word knee, just to make sure.

Knee, K-N-E-E.

Only two sounds in this word, but four letters.

I know that the double E is a diagraph, E, K-N-E-E.

So which letter is represented in the spelling, but I can't hear when I say the word aloud? It was the letter K.

And look, that letter K appears at the beginning of the word and before the letter N.

Knee and knight.

Let's have a look at the next one, reign and gnarled.

Did you spot the silent letter here? They both have a silent G.

Let's sound out the word reign just to be sure.

R-E-I-G-N, reign.

Try again, R-E-I-G-N, reign.

I know that A sound is formed from the letters E I, it's a diagraph.

R-E-I-G-N.

But which is the letter that I can't hear? It's the G, that's right.

Now here the G can appear at the end of the word or at the beginning of the word, but it likes the letter N.

We often see the G before the N in some of these words.

And the last one, write and wrong.

Here remember write meant to write a word on the page.

W-R-I-T-E, write.

There are three sounds, but there are five letters.

I know here that I have a split diagraph, the I split E makes the I sound.

W-R-I-T-E.

But I can't hear the letter, W.

Here the letter W comes at the beginning of the word and it likes the letter R, they appear together.

You'd also see this spelling in wrote, the past tense of write.

Wreck, like a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea, and wrist.

Okay, let's explore these silent letters in more detail.

There are more words on the board, write and wrong, which we've just looked at, but also sword and answer.

These words all had a silent W.

Listen to the first green word, sword.

Sword.

And the second, answer.

Answer.

Here we can't hear that W when we pronounce the word.

So that silent W might come at the beginning of the word, before that letter A, or it might come at the beginning or in the middle of a word, after the letter S.

Let's have a look at another set of words.

What do these words have in common? Rhythm.

The rhythm is the beat within a piece of music.

Rhino, chaos.

My house is in chaos.

Ache, whirl, when.

Pose the video and tell the screen what these words have in common.

Okay, I bet you could spot that they had a silent letter in common.

But could you work out which letter it was? Let's see.

Here the silent letter was the letter H.

Rhythm and rhino.

In rhino, I can hear R-H-I-N-O, rhino.

But I can't hear that H.

In chaos and ache, I can hear A-C-H-E, A-C-H-E, but I can't hear that H.

The same in whirl and when.

All of these words had a silent matter H, but they could be found in different positions within the word and next to different letters.

So in rhythm and rhino, that silent H comes towards the beginning of the word after the letter A.

In chaos and ache, it came after the letter C, and it could be found at the beginning or in the middle of a word.

After the letter W, we can find a silent H, and that often comes at the beginning of a word.

All of these words had a silent H.

Let's have a look at another set of words.

Raspberry, receipt, cupboard.

Can you spot what these words have in common? Pause and tell the screen.

Okay, let's see.

Raspberry, is spelled rasp berry.

Receipt is spelt receipt.

Cupboard is spelt cup board.

What letter did they have, which was silent? Yes, a silent P.

And here that silent P can come in different places in the word and next to different letters.

Lets have a look at this set of words.

What do these have in common? Can you spot the silent letter? Government, autumn, column, solemn.

If I am solemn, I am silent and serious.

A column is a tall pillar.

Pause and tell the screen now.

Okay, let's have a look.

Government, autumn, column and solemn all had a silent N.

In most cases, this silent N came at the end of a word, after the letter M.

In autumn, column and solemn.

Government is a little bit different.

Here generally are silent and comes at the end of a word, after the letter M.

Okay, our final set of words.

What do these words have in common? This is a little harder, but I know that you're going to do this brilliantly.

Calm , chalk, half, salmon.

Pause and tell the screen what these words have in common.

Okay, let's come back together and have a look.

Calm, half, chalk, salmon.

Here all of these words have a silent L, and it's a word L that comes after the letter A, in calm, half, chalk and salmon.

But the difficult thing about this silent letter is that that silent letter changes the sound of the vowel before it.

Here the L is silent but it affects the sound of the vowel, the letter A.

Can you hear that in these words? Calm and half.

But then listen to this one, chalk and salmon.

Yes, here that A sounds different in each of these words.

It's affected by the letter L.

There are other words which follow the same pattern.

Calm is also similar to palm, as in palm tree.

Half is similar to calf, a baby cow.

And chalk, we can see that same spelling pattern and that same sound in talk and walk.

Okay, you have done so well in this lesson.

There have been so many silent letters that we've shared, I wonder now how many you can remember.

We're going to play a game.

I want you to pause the video and tell the screen as many silent letters as you can remember from today's learning.

Ready? Steady, go.

Okay, should we see if you got them all? N, G, L, W, P, H, B.

Wow and a K.

Look at your amazing learning from today.

These are the silent letters which we've explored in today's lesson.

Okay, let's set up spelling words.

I'm going to read you these words one at a time, and I'm going to say each word twice and put it within the sentence to help you understand its meaning.

Your job is to pause the video and copy the word down really carefully.

Be really attentive to it's spelling, particularly those silent letters.

You don't want to copy a word wrongly and then learn the incorrect spelling.

Ready? Number one, rhythm, rhythm.

I can hear the rhythm within this piece of music.

Rhythm.

Pause and copy it down.

Number two, chaos.

Chaos.

The school is in chaos.

Watch out for that silent H.

Pause and copy it down.

Ache.

I have an ache in my legs.

Pause and copy it down.

Government.

The government discusses laws in parliament.

Pause and copy it down.

Autumn.

Autumn is my favourite season.

Pause and copy it down.

Raspberry.

I love to eat a raspberry.

Pause and copy it down.

Cupboard.

I can't reach that tin in the cupboard.

Cupboard.

Pause and copy it down.

Half.

Cut the cake in half.

Pause and copy it down.

Calm.

I hope you are feeling calm.

Pause and copy it down.

Answer.

Have you got the correct answer? Pause and copy it down.

Take as much time as you need now to go back and check those spellings.

We don't want to make any errors at this stage.

So pause the video here, look carefully at each word, make sure you've got those silent letters.

Well done for today's spelling lesson.

You have done brilliantly and you have learned so much.

I look forward to seeing you next time.

Bye.

I've finished the video