Lesson video

Hello, it's Miss Chamberlain-Webber.

Today's rule is quite well known.

What happens in a word when you have the vowels I E together? But today we're going to be looking at something really interesting.

What happens in words with I and E together when there is the vowel sound ee within it? Let's get exploring.

Our agenda is to start with key vocabulary.

We're going to investigate and generate rules for letters I E, and then finally, I'm going to give you 10 spelling words.

In today's lesson, you're going to need paper or an exercise book and a pencil.

It's a really great idea to be in a nice, calm, quiet working environment so that your brain can be ready and calm for your learning.

If you haven't got a pencil or pen, pause the video here and go and get them.

Key vocabulary.

There's a difference between a vowel letter and a vowel sound.

But what is a vowel letter and what is a vowel sound? I want you to read the definitions, option A and option B, to yourself and pause the video here to decide which definition is a vowel letter and which one is a vowel sound.

A vowel letter is option B.

The letters, A, E, I, O, U and Y.

This means they are the physical letters we write from the alphabet.

So, how does a vowel sound differ? A vowel sound is option A.

It's a speech sound we make with a open mouth.

Ay, ai, oh.

Let's explore this a bit further.

Today, we're going to be focusing on one of the E vowel sounds.

Can you decide, looking at these vowel sounds, which ones are for the E vowel sound? It will help if you say them out loud with me.

Let's start with ay.

Ee.

Oh.

Ee.

Ee.

Ay.

Now, which ones made the E sound? Can you point at them now? Pause the video if you need some more thinking time.

E-A makes the sound ee.

This one's a bit trickier.

Y makes the sound ee, like in cycle.

And of course, our two E's together in a word make the vowel sound ee.

These are all long E vowel sounds.

We can have short vowel sounds and long vowel sounds.

But today we're going to be focusing on the long E vowel sound.

Let's investigate and generate some rules.

Here are two words we're going to look at a bit closer.

What is the same and different about these words? Take some time to think about it now.

What is the same and what is different about these two words? Let's start with thief.

What word class is a thief? Noun.

A thief is someone who steals from someone else just like the Artful Dodger in "Oliver." My turn, deceive.

Your turn.

Deceive is a different word class.

Can you tell me what word class deceive is? It's a verb, to deceive.

It means to trick someone or go behind their back and do something, and in a negative way.

So, maybe you can see that these words are linked a little bit by meaning.

However, how are they different? Pause the video here for some more time to think.

You might have spotted something about the spelling.

The vowel sound ee is made by the same two letters in the word, but what is different about it? Thief has the letters I-E making the long E sound.

And so does deceive.

However, deceive has the letters the other way round, E before the I.

Let's look at some more words to spot this pattern further.

Here are six different words.

In a moment, I want you to pause the video and look at each one in detail.

Can you sort them into two separate groups and notice their spellings carefully? Here they are, sorted.

Of course, they're sorted by their spelling of the long vowel sound, ee.

The words on the left, how is the ee sound spelled for them? I before the E.

And my words on the right, E before the I.

Now, did you manage to spot anything interesting about the words on my right? Point to anything similar between them.

They all have a C before the long E sound.

A C before the E and the I.

Your turn to spot the rule.

My turn, then your turn.

Transceiver.

Perceived.

Deceit.

What do we notice about these words? Do they follow that same rule we looked at earlier for E and I? In fact, they do.

All have a C before the E-I.

Let's talk about their meaning now.

What's a transceiver? A transceiver's a term that's not really used that often to describe a device that can transport communication.

For example, a radio or a walkie talkie.

Perceived is the past tense verb of perceive, to think about someone or something in a certain way.

And deceit is linked to our verb, deceive, we looked at earlier.

It's the noun, an act of being deceiving and going behind someone's back.

They all have E before the I.

And did you notice that this is often in the middle of the word, and generally, not always, after the C? What patterns do you notice for these words? My turn, your turn.

Chief.

Hygiene.

Niece.

Perhaps you can tell me the meaning as well.

Pause the video here to have some thinking time.

A chief, a noun, a name for the head of something, for example, a tribe.

Hygiene, the word for keeping yourself or a place clean.

And niece, this is the name of someone in a family who is the daughter of an auntie.

What do these words have in common? The spelling rule I before E except after C.

Can you see that none of these words have a C before the long E sound made by the letters I and E? This is a general rule, but there are some exceptions.

So, show me what you've learned.

Which of these spellings is correct for deceit? Point at the one that is correct.

And pause the video here if you need some more time.

Deceit, I before E except after C.

That means that we have a C in our deceit, so it needs an E before the I.

How about this word, grief? Point at the correct spelling.

This time, it's I before the E because there's no C there.

Pierce, to pull something as to make a hole through it, just like when you get your ear pierced.

Which is the correct spelling for this word? I before E because there's no C in this word.

Point at the correct spelling of conceive.

This time, it is the E before the I because it's after the C.

Now, look at this one carefully.

It may not be as simple as it seems. This word is weird.

Point to the correct spelling.

This word's spelling really does match the meaning.

It's weird because in fact, it's spelled with an E before the I, but there's no C, so it's an exception to our rule.

Pause the video here if you need more time to think about why this is an exception.

Here are our two lists.

Both lists make the long E sound.

So, what's different about them? Our list on the left has the vowels E and I in the order E-I, and this happens generally after the letter C, where the sound is ee.

How about our words on the right? Instead, the I is before the E in these words.

Now, generally, the I before the E is except after C where the sound is ee.

Time to set 10 spelling words.

Here's the list of 10 spelling words.

You're going to write down each one as I go through them individually.

Please pause the video if you need more time to look at each one.

Number one, grief.

Grief is a feeling of extreme sadness, often linked to when someone dies.

What rule applies for this word? I before E except after C.

It's important to notice that there's just one F at the end of this word.

Write down grief if you haven't already.

Number two, priest.

Priest is someone who is qualified to do religious ceremonies.

This follows the same spelling pattern as grief, I before E.

Fierce.

This time, this word is what word class? It's an adjective to describe someone that is horrible in a way that's quite frightening.

You might be able to remember the meaning because of the fact it starts with an F and has an R in it, frightening.

Have you noticed anything about the past three words? I think the letters I and E quite like a letter in particular.

What letter might I be talking about? The R.

Seems to be next to an R in grief, priests and fierce.

Number four, convenience.

This is quite a long word, so make sure you write it down, every single letter correctly.

Convenience is the noun to describe something that is very easy and helpful.

I might say, I like going to the convenience store.

That's a word for a store that has many things in it that you would like to buy.

So that means it's very useful.

Number five, hygiene.

The act of keeping yourself and your surroundings clean so that you don't get ill.

Now, what rule does this follow? There's an I and E because there's no C.

Okay.

There's something a bit tricky about this spelling, though.

What is making the I sound after the letter H? In fact, it's a Y.

So, we must remember that there's a Y after the H, and it's a G making that guh sound for giene.

Number six, ceiling.

There should be, or may be a ceiling above you, unless you're outside.

Now, this time, the spelling's changed.

Can you tell me the rule for this one? I before E except after C.

So in this instance, there's a C, so I have a C-E-I.

Remember it's a soft C sound, a lot more like an S.

Although it sounds like an S, we spell it with a C.

Received.

Can you tell me what tense this word is in? It's a past tense verb of receive, to have something given to you from someone else.

I received a phone call this morning from my friend.

What's the spelling rule for this word? C-E-I, and remember the suffix at the end, E-D.

Number eight.

Can you remind me of the word class for the word deceit? It's a noun.

It's a bit tricky because it's a noun to describe the act of something, of dishonest behaviour.

You might show deceit if you've gone and whispered secrets about someone behind their back.

This follows the same rule as received and ceiling.

But why? There is a C in our word.

C-E-I.

Number seven, transceiver.

Here's another noun.

Can you remind me what it means? It's a thing that can transceive.

So that means it can accept and make communication calls.

This one's quite tricky.

It's a longer word.

And what I find particularly interesting about this word is what letters are making the ss sound.

This time, it's not just one.

Can you point at the letters? In fact, this time it's not just the soft C.

It's the S and the C together, transceiver, just like in the word, science.

So remember, there's an S and a C in the middle, and we've got a suffix, E-R at the end, transceiver.

Number 10, weird.

What is so weird about this word? This time, it doesn't follow the rule.

I've put in one exception for you, number 10, weird has an E before the I, even without a C in the word.

Great.

Pause the video now to make sure you've copied down each one of those 10 words correctly before moving on.

A quick reminder, then.

What are the two different spellings that can make our ee sound in words? We can have an E before the I, which generally is after the C, where the sound is ee.

Or, the other way round, an I before the E, which is generally in other words as long as there's not a C.

You've done a great job of key vocabulary, investigating and generating rules.

Well done today.

You've done a great job at looking at spelling rules and patterns, as well as the meaning of words.

The next spelling lesson in this unit, we're going to be practising and applying the rules for the vowel sound ee spelled in the two different ways.

Please practise your 10 spellings in preparation for the next lesson.