Lesson video

Hello! It's Ms. Chamberlain-Webber.

I'm teaching you spelling today.

And today I'm particularly excited about the lesson because unlike normal spelling lessons, where we're spotting the rule within a word, today we're looking more deeply at the meaning of words.

This is because we're looking at a particular set of words called homophones.

You might have heard of these before.

Let's get started at exploring what's so interesting about them.

The agenda for today's lesson, we're starting with key vocabulary.

What words do we need to know for this lesson? Next, we're going to explore homophones in detail.

And finally, I'm going to set you 10 spelling words.

In this lesson, you will need a pencil and paper.

Pause the video now if you need to go and get those.

I would like you to try and find a nice, calm, quiet space to work so that your brain is completely ready for your learning.

Key vocabulary.

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

Hair.

Hare.

Oh, pause the video here to have a little think.

These words are pronounced exactly the same.

Words that are pronounced the same but have different spellings and meanings are called homophones.

Can you point at where in the spelling there are differences? You're pointing at the end of the words.

Hair on our left is spelt with an i and a r.

Hare on our right is spelt with a r and a e.

Let's look at the meaning of these words in more detail.

Hair, spelt with a i and a r.

Put your finger on that word.

What does that mean? It means this.

The hair on our head.

How about the other spelling of hare with an r and a e? Can you tell me what that means? These are both nouns.

In fact, the hare with the r and a e is a type of animal very similar to a rabbit.

In fact, I just found out recently how they differ.

Do you know how a hare and a rabbit differ? A hare is a slightly larger and faster type of animal than a rabbit.

Homophones.

Unlike other words we have investigated, there are no patterns for homophones.

Instead, we're going to look carefully at the letters in the word.

The way the word is spelt and its place within a sentence will tell us the meaning.

So, let's look at those two words we were focusing on, hare and hair.

I'm going to show you two sentences.

I want you to pause the video here and decide which spelling of hair, which homophone should be placed in each sentence.

The first sentence I brush my hair every morning has the spelling I-R.

The tortoise was faster than the hare, a famous fable, has the spelling R-E.

Okay.

What's the definition of a homophone? Now you've seen some examples, tell me whether option one or option two is correct.

Option one.

Read along with me if you like.

Two or more words that sound the same, but have a different meaning and spelling.

Or option two.

A group of letters at the end of a word that change its meaning.

Point to the correct definition of homophone, please, or pause your screen to have some more time to think.

Option one.

A homophone is two or more words that sound the same, but have different meanings and spellings.

Okay.

A little challenge.

Did you manage to spot what option two is a definition for? A suffix.

Time to explore homophones.

These two words have the same pronunciation, made.

What can you spot about the spellings? There's something different about each word.

Point at the difference.

The top one, made, what vowel sound does it have? A split e.

Okay.

Let's see what it means.

Made is the past tense of what verb? Make.

And the bottom word.

What's interesting about this spelling? The a sound is made with ai.

I wonder if you know the meaning of this word, or what word class it is.

This maid is a noun.

It's a word to describe somebody whose job is to help someone around their home, cleaning, et cetera.

Now you spotted the differences in these spellings, let's try and put them into a sentence to further help us with the meaning of each word.

Read each sentence and decide which homophone should be included in each separate sentence.

Pause the video here to give yourself time.

Our first sentence.

Read along with me.

The maid cleaned the bathroom and hoovered.

This maid is which spelling? Point at the correct one.

M-A-I-D, the noun for the job.

My second spelling must go in my second sentence.

I made a mistake in my writing, but I corrected it.

This spelling is M-A-D-E.

How do we say this set of homophones? Pain.

Let's look at the spellings.

Can you spot what is different about them? They have very similar letters, don't they? Let's start with the first one, P-A-I-N.

What does this word mean? I often get pain in my head after a long week's work.

This is called a headache.

Sometimes, we can get pain anywhere in our bodies.

Or you can actually use it in a different way.

You could say, "Stop being a pain!" to someone who might be annoying you.

How about this other spelling of pane now? This is a noun, a thing.

Can you tell me what it is? Maybe you can point at one close to you.

If you have a window close to you, then it will have a window pane inside it.

A window pane is a single sheath of glass within a window frame.

Linking these words: It would be quite a pain if you smashed the window pane.

Let's look at them in a bit more detail and try and put them in a sentence ourselves.

So here's your challenge.

Here are the two sentences I would like you to decide which homophone of pain to be inserted into which sentence.

Pause the video here and have a go.

Read along with me.

The house has a smashed pane of glass.

The spelling of pane with a? E at the end.

My second sentence.

I had a pain in my side from running too fast.

The spelling of pain with a? A-I.

Okay.

Spot the odd one out.

I'm trying to trick you here.

I've included one non-homophone within this set of three words.

Which one is not a homophone? Point at the odd one out.

Iron.

So, what are the other spellings of the word sun and steel? Write them down now if you know what they are.

This son with an o is referring to a mother or a father's boy son.

But the other spelling of sun is the noun for a big, yellow thing in the sky, isn't it? How do we spell that? And steel.

This steel is a type of metal.

I wonder if you can think about the other meaning of our homophone steal.

Let's have a look and check our answers.

Sun in the sky is spelt S-U-N.

And steal, this one's a verb.

To steal something is to take something from someone.

And can you spot the difference in the spelling? Tell me what's different.

The vowel sound, E-E or E-A.

Show me what you've learned then.

I want you to take our key vocabulary and place it in the correct place in the sentence.

Pause the video now to have some thinking time.

Okay, let's start reading together.

Homophones are words that have the same sound, but a different, and you can have these either way around you like, different spelling and the different meaning.

They're interchangeable.

Here are your spelling words this lesson.

There are 10 words here.

You can pause your video now and number one to 10 on your piece of paper, but don't worry about writing down the words yet.

I'm going to go through each one individually in the next few slides.

Number one, cell.

A cell, spelt with a c, has two different meanings.

One, meaning the tiny, little elements that make up parts of our body or any living thing.

The other meaning is a small confined space, particularly one in jails or prisons, a prison cell.

Now, something a little bit tricky about the spelling, can you spot it? The l sound is a double consonant.

That's two l's.

Make sure you've got this written down correctly before moving on.

Number two, sell.

But what's different about the spelling of this homophone? It starts with an s.

And the meaning of this word is actually to exchange something for money.

So, look at the picture carefully.

What's going on here? What word class is sell? Sell is a verb.

When you go to a market, you see people who sell goods to others.

Number three, rein.

This homophone has three different spellings, starting with this one.

The meaning of this word, rein, is a noun because it's a thing that you attach to a horse in order to ride it.

Can you see the leather strap going around its face? Now, we really need to remember that in this spelling of rain, which is a lot less common, there is an e before the i.

Double-check you have this correct before moving on.

Our second spelling of rain is much more common and used in everyday language.

Look outside.

Can you see any rain? Hopefully not because we wouldn't want to get wet.

This spelling of rain has what vowel in it? An a.

Number three, our final homophone for reign.

Now, this one has two different meanings and two different word classes.

Can you tell me the word class for one or two of them? Pause the video now to have a think.

This spelling of reign as a noun means the rule of the monarchy, the monarchy being the Royal Family.

For example, right now, we have a Queen who is in reign.

There is a verb of reign, to reign, which means the monarchy is ruling over us, to reign over us.

This spelling is very interesting.

Have you spotted the extra letter, which makes it a different spelling from the first reign? A g.

Really be sure to include this g when you're copying down number five.

Number six, rode.

Rode is what word class? It might help if I tell you it's the past tense of the word ride.

I ride my bike today.

Yesterday I rode my bike.

So, what is the word class? A verb.

Good job.

And what do we need to remember about the spelling? It has an e at the end and an o.

It's an o split e vowel sound.

Let's look at our second homophone for road.

This is used a lot more commonly in everyday language.

And of course, it's where we drive cars.

So this spelling for the o sound is with what letter? A, o and a together complete the spelling of road.

Our final homophone for road is another one that's related to a sport.

Can you tell me how? It means the past tense of row.

So, what word class is it? A verb.

The same as rode, as in ride a bike.

Let's put them in a sentence.

Today I row down the river.

Yesterday I rowed down the river.

This spelling is slightly different because of which letter? The w.

Our last set of homophones, number nine, is peace.

Can you tell me the meaning of this homophone peace? Pause the video now and have a think.

This peace means for no conflict to occur.

To have peace means that everyone's in harmony and living happily.

And this, in fact, is a famous sign of peace.

What's interesting about this spelling? Well, we can see the sound is made by a soft c.

But what vowels spelling have we got here? E and a make our ee sound.

Let's see what's different about our second homophone, the piece.

Ahh, maybe you spotted it already.

Pause the video here to think about the meaning of this word.

Piece.

Piece is a small part of something.

I might ask for a big piece of cake.

It's a smaller part of the whole cake.

And in my picture, can you put piece into a sentence about my picture here? For example, there is one piece of my puzzle missing.

What is different about this spelling of piece compared to the peace before? It's the vowel sound.

Can you point to this vowel sound? Ie makes the sound ee, but the spelling is with an i.

You have really done well today.

I'm liking your focus.

And that's it.

Congratulations.

Let's see what you've achieved.

Firstly, we looked at key vocabulary.

Then we explored how fascinating homophones are.

How many different meanings we can have for the same sounding word? I wonder if you can find any more homophones after this lesson? And finally, you've got your 10 words that I would like you to practise before the next spelling lesson in this unit.

That would be lesson seven of this unit.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again then.