Lesson video

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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, and someone or something to talk to would be great as well.

Let's get right into today's spelling lesson then.

In today's lesson, we're going to be spelling words with silent letters.

We're going to be looking at silent letters b, w, k and g.

The outcome will be I can identify words that contain silent letters.

Here are the key words for today's learning.

My turn.

Your turn.

Make sure I can hear you saying these back to me.

Silent letter.

Phoneme.

Grapheme.

Brilliant.

So a silent letter is a letter in a word that is not pronounced when the word is spoken, so we don't hear it when we say the word.

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can change its meaning, and a grapheme is the letter or group of letters that represent a sound.

Here's the outline for today's lesson.

We're going to be spelling words with the silent letters b, w, k and g.

In the first part of the lesson, we're going to look at the mb digraph.

Then we're going to look at the wr digraph.

In the second part, we'll look at the kn digraph and the gn digraph, and finally, we'll apply spellings within a sentence.

Let's get on with looking at the mb and the wr spellings then.

There are several ways the m sound can be represented.

Let's have a look at these words.

We have the words map, swim, swimming, thumb and climb.

And here, I can hear that m sound in each of these words, but there's different spellings representing it each time.

In map and swim, I just have a single m.

In swimming, I have a double m, and in thumb and climb, I have an mb representing that m sound.

So here we are, map and swim, single m.

Summer and swimming, we have double m, and climb and thumb, we have that mb spelling.

Hmm, that's an interesting one, isn't it? The representation of the m sounds includes the grapheme mb.

The mb spelling can be known as having a silent letter because you can't hear the b.

I don't say thumb or climb.

I just hear that m sound.

Which of these two words use mb to represent the m sound? Have a read of the words.

Dumb, zombie, ham, plumber.

Pause the video and select the words that use that mb grapheme to represent that m sound.

Fantastic job, team.

Let's go through them then.

Dumb.

Yeah, I can hear d, u, mb.

I can hear that m sound, can tell that m sound.

So yeah, my m and my b do work there to create that m sound.

Zombie, that's a little bit different.

I have an m and b together, but I can hear separately the m and the b, zom bie.

I can hear that b sound there.

Ham.

Hmm, don't think there's a silent b there.

And plumber, like a plumber who might come round to fix the pipes or toilet in your house.

Plumber.

Yeah.

I don't say plum ber.

So that one there, that m and that b made that m sound.

Great job.

So what do you notice about this mb spelling then? Let's have a read of these words.

My turn.

Your turn.

Comb, that's an interesting spelling, isn't it, 'cause it looks like it should be com b, but it's comb, like the comb you might brush your hair with.

Thumb.

Lamb, baby sheep.

Climb.

Careful with that one as well.

It looks like it might be clim b, but that i spelling makes a long i sound.

Crumb, like the crumbs of bread, and climbed, and there it's the same as climb, our root word climb.

We've added our ed suffix.

So what do you notice about this mb spelling? Where does it like to come in words? Pause the video and have a think.

Great.

Yeah, well, I've noticed that the mb spelling is usually found at the end of a word, and here we have climbed.

So we have ed at the end of the word, but that's where we've added that ed suffix to the end of the word, and mb is still at the end of our root word, climb.

So mb, most commonly found at the end of a word.

Where is the mb spelling then usually found? Is it a, the beginning, b, the middle, c, the end, or d, anywhere in a word? Pause the video.

Select the correct answer now.

Good job.

Absolutely.

It's not at the beginning, is it? It's not in the middle.

It is the end, and these words prove this: comb, thumb, lamb, climb.

You can see our silent b in our mb grapheme there at the end of each of these words.

Remember, it might sometimes be in the middle of the word, but that's because we've perhaps added a suffix to the end of the word.

It's still at the end of the root word.

There are several ways to write the r sound or to represent that r sound, I should say.

So let's have a look at these words.

We've got rage, brown, carry, arrive, write and wrist.

Hmm, so I can see this r sound here represented by a single r spelling, by a double r spelling, and by this wr spelling.

Very strange.

So rage and brown both have that r.

Carry and arrive have that double r, and write and wrist have this wr.

Hmm, that's an interesting one 'cause I don't pronounce it w rist or w rite.

I just say write.

So again, this grapheme here, this digraph wr is representing that one sound, that r sound.

So a representation for that r grapheme and that r phoneme is this wr, and this can then be known as having a silent w because when I pronounce words with this digraph here, I don't say the w, so we have a silent w.

So which of these words uses this wr to represent that r sound? Let's read those words: water, forward, wrong, arrow.

There's one word here that uses the wr to represent that r sound.

We have a silent w.

Pause the video and select it now.

Good job.

Let's have a look.

Water.

No, I don't have a w and an r together there.

I have a w and r separately, water, and I can hear that w, w, water.

Forward, again, I have my r and my w, but the other way round, don't I? And I can hear it, for and then ward.

Forward.

I can hear my w there.

Wrong.

Ah, wr there, ong.

That's the wrong answer.

Yes, that is my one, and the word arrow has a double r representing the r sound there.

So wrong is our correct answer.

What do you notice about this spelling then, this wr spelling for this r sound? Let's have a look.

We have the word wrestle, wriggle, wrinkle, wreck, write and wrote.

Hmm, where do we think it likes to come in the word then? Pause the video.

See what you notice.

Great job, team.

So I can see that wr spelling is usually found at the beginning of a word.

So I can see here wrestle, wriggle, wrinkle, wreck, write, wrote.

That r sound coming at the beginning of each word each time, isn't it? So if we know the present tense for a wr spelling, we also know the past tense.

So here we have the word write, which is our present tense, wrote being our past tense 'cause we wouldn't say writed.

It's an irregular past tense, wrote, and then so if we know our present tense, we can then also know our past tense.

It's quite useful for us to keep a word consciousness like that in our mind when we're thinking about spellings, so our wr spelling for this r sound, and that silent w likes to come at the beginning of words.

Where is the wr spelling usually found in a word then? Choose from a, b, c or d.

Pause the video and make your selection now.

Good job, team.

So the beginning, the middle, the end or anywhere? It is the beginning, and here we have the words wrist, wreck, wrong and wreath, my Christmas wreath, that show that our wr, our silent w likes to come at the beginning of a word.

So I'd like you to have a look here for me.

I've got some words that contain our mb and our wr spellings with some silent letters.

I'd like you to put them them into the correct column.

Be careful.

Not all of the words have a silent letter.

So I've tried to trip you up here.

Really read the words carefully.

Consider does it have a silent letter in it, a silent b or a silent w.

Some of them will not, so you won't need to put them into the correct columns.

Pause the video now, read the words, and put them into the correct columns.

Off you go.

Good job, team.

Let's see how we've done then.

So hoping you managed to sort them like this.

So we have thumb, lamb in there with the silent b, and we have wrong and wrist in there with a silent w.

Now, some of the other words we have looked at, like crab here that we had and while, they didn't have silent b or silent w in them.

Crab, you can clearly hear the b, and in while, you can hear the w.

What we don't hear there in while is that h.

I don't say w hile.

So these were our correct answers here.

Pause the video, check, see how you did.

On to our next learning cycle then.

We're gonna continue by looking at some more silent letters.

This time we're gonna look at our kn and our gn graphemes that represent some silent letters.

So there are several ways of making that n sound.

Let's have a look at these words.

We have not, noon, winner, knot, ooh, sounds like a homophone of the first spelling there, and knee.

So we can see here in the word not, like you should not do that, our n can be our representation.

It's the same in noon both at beginning and the end.

Winner, we have a double n spelling, and then in knot, like the knot you would tie in laces, we have a kn representation, and in knee, like the knees on your legs, we have a kn representation there.

So not and noon, we have n.

Winner and spinning, we have double n, and in knot and knee, we have a kn representation, and you'll notice here there's a silent letter, remember, a letter that's not pronounced when we say the word.

I don't say k not or k nee for that k, so we have a silent k.

So a representation of the n sound includes the grapheme kn.

The kn spelling can be known as having a silent letter because you don't hear the k when it's pronounced.

The words knot and knee we don't pronounce k not or k nee.

So which of these words uses the kn to represent that n sound? Have a read of them and then select the words or word that uses the kn there to represent the n sound.

Pause the video.

Okay, so let's have a look at these then, team.

So sink.

Hmm, that's that making nk.

I can hear the k there, and it's the n before the k.

So that one's not right.

The word know, as in I know what's happening.

Hmm, I don't say k now, do I? I say know.

So that kn there is behaving with that silent k, and then nuts.

Okay, I enjoy eating nuts.

Nope, no silent k there, and then annoy.

We have our double n representation of that n sound, don't we? So the only one is the know, as in I know.

So what do you notice about this spelling then? Have a look at these words.

We have know, knead, as in what you would do with dough, okay, when if you're making pizza or bread, you need to knead it, you need to roll it, knee, knit, like you're knitting something, knob, like a knob of butter, and knock, as in knock at the door.

What do you notice about this spelling, this kn spelling? Pause the video.

Have a think.

Okay, so I've noticed that this kn spelling is usually found at the beginning of a word.

So if we continue to have a look here as well, look at these words.

We have know, known, knowing, knowledge, unknowing, unknowledgeable.

So these words are all part of a word family.

So words connected in word families often have similar spellings.

So if you have that word know, known, knowing, knowledge, unknowing, unknowledgeable, we all know at some point they're gonna contain, if they have that word know in them to do with knowing, knowledge, they're gonna have that silent k in them somewhere.

So if we look at unknowing and unknowledgeable, they don't follow this pattern of the kn coming at the beginning, but it's still at the beginning of our root word here, which we know is know or knowing, and we've added the prefix un before both, so still at the beginning of our root word.

So where is the kn spelling usually found in a word? Pause the video and select from a, b, c or d.

Off you go.

Good job, team.

Absolutely it's at the beginning, and these words show this: know, knead, and knee.

Now we're gonna look at some words that have an n sound, some more n sounds, even: noun, interest, runner, knead, like that dough you would knead, knock, gnome, like a garden gnome, and gnaw, which means to chew, (growling) gnaw.

So I can see here that my n sound can be represented with an n, as we've looked at already, a double n, a kn with that silent k, but also now with a gn representation.

So here we go.

Interest and noon both have n.

Dinner and runner have double n.

Knead and knot have our kn, and gnome and gnaw have our gn, and notice again how they're making an n sound.

So here we have a silent g.

That n, a representation for that n sound includes the grapheme gn, and that g there is a silent letter 'cause I'm not saying g nome or g naw or g naw.

So which of these uses the gn to represent that n sound? Have a go at saying these words.

Pause the video.

Okay, good job.

So let's have a look at these individually.

In a, we have the word signal.

Now, I don't say sinal.

I'm not pronouncing my g and my n together there, okay? So they are being pronounced separately.

So it's not my gn representing my n.

They're both making individual phonemes.

The word gnat, which is like a type of small fly that might buzz around and bite you, gnat.

I didn't say g nat.

I say gnat.

So yeah, that one there, absolutely, my g and my n are working together to represent my n sound there.

I have a silent g.

In the word game, no.

I can clearly hear my g there, and in the word running, I have my double n making that n sound and my n and my g there being pronounced separately.

Running, ing, ng there.

So what do you notice about this spelling as well? It's quite similar to our kn one, isn't it? We have gnat, gnaw, gnash, like gnash your teeth together, sign, okay? You have to be careful with sign and signal 'cause in the word signal, there is the word sign, but here, we pronounce it that gn.

We don't say sig n.

I pronounce it sign, and that i makes a long i sound.

Design and assign, and again, those three there, sign, design, assign, sort of part of a word family, aren't they? So what do you notice about this gn spelling in terms of where it likes to come in words? There's two places I think it likes to come.

Pause the video and have a think Good job, team.

So I can see the gn spelling is usually found at the beginning or the end of a word.

So in gnat, gnaw, gnash, we can see at the beginning, and in sign, design and assign, as you assign something, you give someone that job to do, assign, it's coming at the end.

Not all of the words that contain gn, that spelling, okay, form that digraph, okay, those two letters representing that one n sound.

For instance, the word signal is s-i-g-n-a-l, signal.

Yeah, so our g and our n are separate there.

We can hear those phonemes.

They're pronounced separately, so be careful.

What do you notice about these words then? My turn.

Your turn.

Campaign, design, foreign, so a person coming from another country, sign, reigned and assigned, I gave someone the job.

So it is thought that our kn and our gn digraphs, etymologically, so in terms of the history of where that word comes from, is rooted in the Germanic past of English.

It's really interesting, so, and here we can see in reigned and assigned our gn is still at the end of our root word, which is in this instance reign and assign, and we've added our ed suffix onto the end.

So in which two places is the gn spelling usually found? Pause the video.

Select the correct answer now.

Two places.

Good job.

So often found at the beginning, yes.

In the middle, no.

I haven't seen it in the middle so much, remember, and if it is in the middle, it's often then at the end of the root word, isn't it, or the beginning of the root word, and it's often found at the end.

Brilliant.

They're the two places it's most commonly found, at the beginning and at the end, and here we have some words that show this: gnaw and gnat and sign.

So what I'd like you to do for me here is I'd like you to put the words into the correct column to show if they have a silent letter, but be careful.

Some of these words don't have silent letters.

So I'd like you to read the words and then decide whether they have a silent k or a silent g, and if they don't have a silent letter, to leave them out.

Pause the video.

Sort the words now.

Off you go.

Okay, good job, team.

Let's see how you've done then.

So you had the words knock, king, gnaw, going, knit and sign.

So let's see.

Knock and knit both had a silent k.

Gnaw and sign both had a silent g.

Gnaw and sign, here we can see our silent g coming at the beginning of the word gnaw, and in sign, it's coming towards the end, and in knock and knit, we know a silent k most commonly comes at the beginning of the word.

There were two words here that we left out and they were king, I can clearly hear the k there, and going, I can hear two gs there, can't I? Go, ing.

So on to our final learning cycle then.

We're gonna apply spellings in a sentence.

Let's read the following word.

My turn.

Your turn.

Perhaps.

What do you notice about this spelling in terms of the way I'm pronouncing it? My turn.

Your turn.

Perhaps.

Is there something interesting about it? Pause the video and have a think.

Brilliant, so it has two syllables, per haps, but our er syllable there is in the middle, which is quite rare, isn't it? We often see our er spelling at the end of a word, perhaps, but this time it's coming in the middle.

This is a curriculum word, and it's really helpful for us to remember for our reading and our writing.

So let's memorise this spelling now, perhaps.

This word, perhaps, is used to express uncertainty as it's synonymous with the word maybe.

So we say, "Perhaps I shouldn't have done that." It would mean maybe you shouldn't have done that.

So which is the correct spelling of the word perhaps here? Pause the video and point to it now.

Good job.

Absolutely.

Remember it has that er spelling, two syllables, per haps.

Okay, sometimes we don't really emphasise the perhaps part there, the er part particularly much.

Be careful.

It's the er spelling though.

So this is our spelling here.

We are going to write a sentence containing some of our focus spellings, so some of those words beside letters that we've been looking at.

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

We need to remember the whole sentence.

We need to sound out each word.

We need to think of our spelling rules.

We need to look out for the common exception or curriculum words.

Think about the curriculum word "perhaps" we've looked at, and we also need to remember sentence punctuation, capital letters or (indistinct).

So I'd like you to just listen to me say the sentence that we're going to be writing first of all, so use your great hearing.