Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's spelling lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss, and I'm really looking forward to teaching you.

With you today, you need to bring with you your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains, as well as that something to write with, and someone to talk to you would be great as well.

Let's crack straight on with today's lesson.

So, in today's lesson, we're gonna be looking at the ss spellings, including "SS" and "C".

So we're thinking about that ss phoneme, okay? That letter S.

The outcome is, "I can spell words containing two representations of the 's' phoneme," so that S sound, SS and C.

And we're also going to be looking briefly at the S spelling itself as well.

So here are the key bits of vocab today.

Keywords, if you will.

I'd love you to keep an eye out for these.

So my turn, your turn.

I need to hear you say these.

Short vowel.

Short vowel.

Brilliant.

Soft C.

Soft C.

A short vowel is a vowel sound that sounds short when spoken.

So we're not thinking about long sounds here.

Long vowels like A, okay? We're thinking ah ah, uh uh, ih ih, oh oh, uh uh.

So an example of this might be the O in the word "hot", okay? It's a short vowel sound, 'cause it's h-oh-t.

So it's oh oh, not ohh.

Or the A in cat.

The A there is an ah ah sound, rather than an ay.

C-ah-T.

A soft C then, is when a C sounds like a "ss", or an S.

So for instance, in the word city, which we look at in the moment, spelled C-I-T-Y, it's not kitty, okay? It's not making a hard C sound, okay? It's making soft C.

Ss-ih-ty.

City.

So it's when a C makes an ss or an S sound.

Brilliant.

Keep an eye out for these today, they're really important.

Here is the lesson outline for today.

We are gonna be looking at ss spellings, or S spellings, including SS and C.

Spelling some common exception words first, and then looking at these three S spellings, okay? SS, C, and S.

And then applying these spellings in a sentence.

Really looking forward to it.

Let's get on.

So first of all, looking at some common exception words.

Common exception words, then, are words that don't follow our regular phonics patterns, okay? So they're words that we cannot apply our normal phonics rules to.

So they can often be known as sort of tricky or harder to read words.

Let's have a go at reading some words first.

My turn your turn.

Bath.

Bath.

Brilliant.

Path.

Path.

So, these words can be difficult to spell, but that's only dependent upon the way in which you pronounce them, okay? People that speak in a certain accent might actually not consider these to be common exception words.

I know for instance, in my family, some people might pronounce these words b-Ah-th, or p-Ah-th, and in that instance, they wouldn't be common exception words, because the A there would make that short vowel "Ah" sound, which it is more likely to make.

The reason for some people, like myself, I pronounce them b-aw-th and p-aw-th.

And then we can see here that A is a bit problematic, isn't it? Because it's not making an "ah" sound, it's making an "awr" sound.

It's not making an "ah" or an "ay" sound.

It's making an "awr" sound.

Bath.

Path.

So, if you pronounce them in the same way I do, bath and path, that's why they're considered common exception words.

So, you can read it here.

B-Ah-th.

Bath.

If you pronounce it like that, that makes then, phonetic sense.

But for me, I would have an issue there (indistinct) because it's not quite making that "ay" or "ah" sound, it's making an "awr" sound.

So that's why for me, they're common exception words.

So, which of these are spelled correctly? Pause the video and point now to the correct spelling of the word bath.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Some of these do look like they could be correct in terms of phonetically.

So if you look at the first one, b-arth, bath.

That sounds phonetically plausible, doesn't it? But we know, okay, it's bath or bath, and it's that A there making that "ah" sound or making an "awr" sound, if you pronounce it like I do.

Could you please pause the video now and point to the correct spelling of the word path for me? Brilliant.

Excellent! So, correct spelling of path.

Really similar, similar pattern to bath.

It's that P-A-T-H, making that p-awth or p-Ah-th spelling.

Brilliant.

Remember, these are only common exception words for certain people who pronounce them in that certain way.

They might not be common exception words for you.

So because these are common exception words for some, okay, what we're gonna do is we're gonna have to learn and memorise them, really ingrain them, and embed them in our memories.

So we're gonna use a strategy here called the "look, cover, write, check" strategy.

This is where we look at a word.

So I've got the word bath here.

I then cover it up.

Ooh, I've memorised it, and then have a go at writing it, and then I check back and see how I did.

Brilliant.

I managed to spell it correctly, but I'm not just going to do it once.

I'm going to repeat it to really, really make that stick in my memory.

So I'd like you to pause the video now and have a go using this strategy to write out the words bath and path a number of times.

Pause the video, off you go.

Fantastic, everyone.

So hopefully you've got something that's a bit like this.

If you've made any mistakes, absolutely fine, just correct them now.

Pause the video, make any corrections.

Off you go.

Onto then our next learning cycle, which is us looking at these three "ss" or S spellings, double S, C, and S.

So, I'd like you to have a good at reading these words containing the S sound or the ss sound.

And I'd like you to think, what representations are we going to be looking at today? So I'd like you to pause the video now and have a go at reading each of these words.

Pause the video, off you go.

Fantastic, everyone.

I can really hear you saying those spellings there.

Let's go through them together then.

So I can see here, I've got the word "sun", "bus", "see" and "still".

Brilliant.

So if we think, which graphene there is representing our S or our ss sound, absolutely it's our S, isn't it? Let's then look at the next group of words.

We've got grass, kiss, miss, and dress.

And we can see here, we've got that double S representing our ss sound.

Seems to be coming at the end of words as well.

And then finally, we've got an interesting one here, and keep an ear out here for one of our key words for today.

We've got race, ice, city, and fancy.

And this is our C representation for this ss sound.

And we call this our soft C, because it's not making a hard kk sound.

It's making a ss sound.

So when C makes that S sound, we call it a soft C.

My turn, your turn.

Soft C.

City.

Soft C.

Brilliant.

So, we're looking at these three representations for that ss sound.

I'd like us to have a look at these words below, and I'd like us to put them into the correct columns here.

Where in the word is the ss sound, and what representation shows that ss sound? What spelling? Let's read the words first.

My turn, your turn.

Sun.

Grass.

Bus.

Race.

Sea.

And this is a sea as in the salty sea.

Kiss.

Ice.

Miss.

City.

Lots of ss sounds there.

And this sun as well, is not as in the son of parents.

This is the sun as in the sun at the centre of our solar system.

So I'd like you to pause the video now and I'd like you to sort these words into the correct columns.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

So I'm hoping you've got a table that then looks like this, and let's have a look then where are our S spellings coming? We want to think about, where are the ss sounds then coming in each of these words, and commonly where do these ss spellings like to come? So the S spelling, okay, is our most common representation for that ss sound.

And it's the most likely representation if it's at the beginning of a word, okay? We're not gonna see, very often you're not gonna see that double S spelling, if at all ever, at the beginning of a word.

And you'll sometimes see our soft C.

So if it's at the beginning of word, it's most likely our S.

But it doesn't always have to come at the beginning of a word.

Let's have a look at these words.

Sun, bus, sea, still, and list.

And S can be found anywhere in a word, okay? A single S grapheme on its own, anywhere in a word.

It's the most common representation.

Our double S is usually found after a short vowel.

Most of our key words, remember our short vowels are ah, eh, ih, oh, uh.

Okay? That shortest representation of that vowel, the shortest way it can be pronounced, not our long vowels.

So let's read these words.

My turn, your turn.

Kiss.

And there I can hear that ih ih, short vowel.

Miss.

Again, I can hear the ih short vowel.

Dress.

Again, I can hear that eh short vowel.

Kissed.

Now this is the same as kiss, isn't it? And we can see here, k-ih-ss.

Kiss, at the end there, after our short vowel.

And here, a double S is still at the end of our root word, okay? Our root word is kiss here, and we just added the suffix -ed onto the end.

And finally, fuss.

F-uh-ss.

I can hear that uh uh.

There are some exceptions to this though, okay? The words bus and yes, both have short vowel sounds and are followed by an ss sound, and it's not a double S, okay? But most often, if you hear a ss sound, or the S sound after a short vowel, it will be a double S spelling.

And finally, our soft C.

Our soft C, remember, is that C that sounds like a ss, okay? And it's usually found before an E, an I, or a Y.

So if we look here at these words, race, ice, city, fancy, and face, we can see here it's often coming, okay? Before either an E, an I, or a Y.

So let's have a look at this example.

Race.

R.

R-ay-ss.

Race.

And you'll notice as well, some of these words have split digraphs.

Okay? So our two letter representation for the sound, so the A sound in race, is then split up by our soft C.

Okay? You see that in race, and ice, and face.

What I'd like you to do now is I'd like you to match the spellings of the ss sound to where they most commonly found in a word.

So we've got our S, our C, and our double S representations of that ss sound.

Where are they most commonly found? Pause the video, have a think now.

Match them to where they're found.

Excellent work everyone.

So lots of people were moving their fingers and showing and saying, "That sound goes there! This goes there." You're so engaged.

Keep up your amazing learning.

So our S representation for that ss sound, that can be found anywhere, and it's the most likely one at the beginning of a word, remember.

Our C representation, our soft C, should I say, is often found before an E, an I, or a Y.

Remember, it quite likes a split diagraph as well.

And our double S is often found at the end, okay? And after a short vowel sound, but there are a couple of exceptions from those words, bus and yes.

Brilliant, excellent sorting.

Check and see how you did.

So for the final practise task of this learning cycle, what we're going to do is we're going to have a go at spelling some words that contain some different ss sounds.

Okay? Some different representations of that S spelling.

SS, C, and S.

I'd like you to remember to stretch the words.

Sound them out, okay? Count those sounds, write, and then look and check.

Also consider the rules that we've generated as to where these different ss spellings like to come in the word.

So first off, our first word is face.

My turn, your turn.

Face.

That's a long vowel sound, isn't it? Face.

F-ay-ss.

Face.

Hmm, that sounds like a split digraph as well.

So we've got face.

Our second one, okay? City.

City.

Okay.

And then finally, we have hissed.

Hissed.

And our root word here is hiss.

I think it sounds like a short vowel to me.

So we've got face, city, hissed.

Please pause the video now.

Have a go at writing these words for me.

Take your time.

Off you go.

Fantastic work from everybody.

I saw some unbelievable application of the rules that you generated, but not only that, amazing sounding out and sort of almost robot-talking as well there, counting the sounds, writing them, some beautiful handwriting as well.

Brilliant work everyone.

So, let's have a look.

I've seen the word face written in these ways.

F-ay-ss.

"Fays." Hmm, phonetically plausible.

F-ay-ss.

Face.

Phonetically plausible.

And so is the last one.

Okay, let's think about which one's correct here then.

Hmm, I'm not so sure my AA, AY-s really like to come in the middle like that.

I haven't seen face written like that before.

I think it's gonna be our split diagraph here, okay? And we know that that C, that soft C, likes to come, okay, before an E, doesn't it? Okay.

And is often found in split digraphs.

So the correct spelling is this one here, face.

It's our soft C, face.

The next word we had was city.

And I've seen it written in these ways.

Sit-ee.

Of course it could be the word to sit, but that's not what I'm looking for, is it? I'm looking for a city as in London being a city, or Manchester being a city, or Birmingham being a city.

A large collection of buildings and people living together.

Hmm, let's think about this then.

Don't really think it's gonna be as in the word sit, which is S-I-T.

I'm looking for a city as in a group of people living together, aren't I? In a large place.

So let's think about this.

City.

I think it's gonna be my EE, and my strange Y spelling at the end.

And we've also considered today that soft C sometimes coming at the beginning.

Now this is a little bit of a tricky one, isn't it? Because I have said that our S spelling is most likely to come at the start of a word, isn't it? But in this instance, it is our soft C coming at the start, city, okay? And that's also then seen in other words as well, words like citadel also begins with a C, which links to this word, okay? Being to do with buildings.

And then finally we had the word hissed.

Now our root word here is hiss.

Let's have a look, see how I've seen this spelled.

I've seen it spelled hist.

Hmm.

Hissed, and hissd.

Hmm.

So, it does almost sound like a T at the end, doesn't it? Hissed.

But I don't think so.

We're gonna have one of our verb endings, and our verb endings as in an -ed.

So I think we can disregard our first one.

Now let's think about this.

Our root word is hiss, isn't it? H-ih-ss.

Hiss.

So that's a short vowel.

So it's gonna be that double S spelling, definitely.

Okay? And then we're gonna add that suffix, -ed.

That verb ending onto it.

So it's this one here.

Brilliant.

The snake hissed.

Excellent.

So, see how you did.

Make any corrections now.

Remember, mistakes are wonderful in spelling.

It's how we learn, okay? They're magical to me.

So make any corrections now, pause the video, have a look.

Amazing.

So, onto our final learning cycle, which is gonna be applying spellings within a sentence.

We are going to write a sentence containing some of our focus spellings, and common exception words.

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

So really take our time with this.

Remember the whole sentence? Form letters correctly, sound out each word, look out for common exception words.

And remember sentence punctuation, those capital letters and full stops.

So just listen to me say the sentence first.

"There was ice on the path and grass in the city until the sun came out." We've got this picture here to help us as well.

"There was ice on the path and grass in the city until the sun came out." So what we're gonna do is we're gonna use some strategies to help us remember this, and really embed this sentence before we start writing it.

The first one is marching it out.

Watch me march it out first.

"There was ice on the path and grass in the city until the sun came out." You pause the video now, and march out the sentence.

Fantastic.

Now you're gonna whisper it.

"There was ice on the path and grass in the city until the sun came out." Amazing.

Pause the video, whisper it now.

Either to yourself or to someone near you.

Fantastic.

And the final one, counting the words, because this is quite a long sentence, isn't it? "There was ice on the path and grass in the city until the sun came out." Very long.

You're gonna do amazingly well with this.

I'm gonna do that one more time.

"There was ice on the path and grass in the city until the sun came out." Brilliant.

You count those words now.

Pause the video.

Superb.

Excellent.

So, you're gonna have a go at writing the sentence now.

Please remember to sound out each word, look out for common exception words.

Check your sentence punctuation as well.

Are you ready? I'm gonna say it one more time.

"There was ice on the path and grass in the city until the sun came out." Pause the video and have a go at writing this sentence now.

Off you go.

Excellent work there, everyone.

Saw some brilliant application of the spelling rules we've been looking at, some amazing handwriting.

So let's see how we've done.

Make some corrections and check your work as we go along.

So, "there" obviously needs to have a capital letter, and it's our T-H-E-R-E spelling of there.

"Was ice", and that's our soft C there.

Okay, the splitting up our IE split digraph.

"On the path." P-ah-th, or you might pronounce it "path", in which case it wouldn't be a common exception word.

"And grass." There you go.

You might like to pronounce that "grass", but it's got that double S spelling at the end there.

"In the city." Our soft C there, coming at the beginning of the word.

"Until the sun." That's our S spelling there, which is very commonly found at the beginning of words.

"Came out." Obviously a full stop there.

What did you learn? Check now.

Make any corrections.

Share your spellings with those around you.

Really good job.

Pause the video, make any corrections now.

Brilliant work today, everyone.

So today we've been looking at this sort of "ss" phoneme, that S sound, haven't we? Our ss.

And we said it can be spelled in several ways.

Just as an S.

And in that case it can be found anywhere in the word, quite often at the beginning.

And then also, we've been looking at our double S spelling, SS, which is usually found after a short vowel and at the end of a word or at the end of a root word, as in hiss, moss, and kiss.

And then our soft C spelling, which is often found before an E, an I, or a Y, as in the words face, fancy, and city.

Absolutely brilliant work today, everyone.

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