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 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 also be excellent.

Right then, let's waste no time and get right in to today's spelling lesson.

In this spelling lesson, we're going to be spelling words using a hard C.

The outcome will be I can spell words using hard C.

Here are the keywords for today's learning.

My turn.

Your turn.

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

Soft C.

Hard C.

Vowel letters.

Consonant letters.

So a soft C sounds like an S in words like city, cereal, mercy, sounds like a S.

A hard C sounds like a K in cat, cup, coat, or climb.

Ka, ka.

Vowel letters are the letters a, e, i, o, u and also sometimes Y, which can make an I or an I sound that represent vowel sounds.

We can have long or short vowel sounds.

Short vowels are a, e, i, o, u.

Long vowels are a, e, i, o, u.

And consonant letters are all of the letters in the alphabet that represent consonant sounds, those sounds made by the blocking of the air, by the teeth, tongue, lips or palette.

P, T, M, N, all those letters that are not vowels, not spoken with an open mouth.

So spelling words using a hard C.

We're going to begin by investigating the hard C and the soft C.

Then we're going to look at some strategies to practise.

And finally, we're going to spell some curriculum words.

Let's get on with investigating that hard C and that soft C then that we've already spoken about in our keywords.

Read these words for me.

Calendar.

As we read these words, keep an ear and an eye out for that hard or soft C and where it's coming in the word and how it's represented.

Cobweb.

Cupboard.

Watch out with that word.

It's a compound word, cup and board, but we don't hear the P when we put them together and say cupboard.

Clingfilm.

Carnival.

A big celebration.

Disco.

Disco music.

Discuss.

A conversation between two or more people.

Column.

A column is an upright pillar.

All of these words include the letter C and the hard C sound.

It sounds like a K, ka.

Calendar, cobweb, cupboard, clingfilm, carnival, disco, discuss, column.

If the vowel letters a, o or u follow the letter C, it is pronounced as a hard C.

So calendar has that A after it.

Cobweb has that O and cupboard has that U.

Likewise, if a consonant letter follows the C, it is also pronounced as a hard C.

For instance, clingfilm has the consonant letter L after the C.

So it's a hard C, not a soft C.

Cling.

Ka, ka.

This is except for H, which can make a cha, cha sound or a ka, ka sound, like chat or chorus.

Which words contain a hard C? Great.

Let's read the words.

Curtain, lke the curtain you might draw back across a window.

Yep, that has a hard C, doesn't it? It's followed by our U vowel letter, so it's curtain.

The next word is chick.

Oh, that's followed by an H as our consonant.

So it makes a cha, cha, not a hard C.

Decide was the next word.

That's a soft C, isn't it? Decide and column, ka, ka, followed by our O vowel letter.

So it is a hard C.

Remember to read the words carefully.

If the letters A, O or U or a consonant letter that isn't an H follow the letter C, it is pronounced as a hard C.

The letter C makes a hard C sound when it is followed by? Select the correct answers.

Off you go.

Great job.

The vowel letters E or I.

Hmm.

The vowel letters A, O, or U.

Correct.

Any vowel letter.

No, because not when it's followed by E or I.

When followed by E or I, it often makes a soft C sound or a consonant letter, but watch out for that consonant letter H.

So soft C and hard C refer to two different sounds that the letter C can represent in English spelling, often depending on the letters that follow it.

The hard C sound usually occurs when the letter C comes before the vowel letters A, O or U or the consonant letter but not an H, remember 'cause that can make a cha.

The soft C usually occurs when the letter C comes before the vowel letters E, I or sometimes Y.

Read the words below and match the word to the sound that it contains, either a hard C, soft C, or perhaps both a soft C and a hard C.

Read the words and match them.

Off you go.

Great job, team.

Let's go through these words then.

Cluster.

A cluster is a group of something.

Cylinder.

That shape, cylinder.

That's our soft C followed by our Y there.

Crunchy.

That's our hard C there.

Crunchy, ka, ka.

Bicycle.

Ooh, I can hear both a soft and a hard C there.

Bicy-cy-cle-cle.

So soft and hard C.

And ceiling followed by our E there.

Ceiling with our E, I letter string, ceiling.

There we go.

Great.

Place the words here into the table by sorting them according to the letter which comes after the C.

Then say the word aloud and highlight the soft C and hard C.

So look carefully at the words, sort them into the correct columns and then see if they have a hard C or a soft C.

Think about the rules we've looked at.

Off you go.

Brilliant job, team.

So I'm hoping that you've managed to sort these words like this.

We had in our ca cardigan and recap.

So hard Cs followed by that A vowel letter.

Then we had celery and centre, soft Cs followed by that E vowel letter.

Then circle and cinnamon.

Again, a soft C followed by that I vowel letter.

Coffin and cow, hard Cs because they're followed by that O vowel letter.

And customer and custard, again, hard Cs because they're followed by that U vowel letter.

And then fancy and cylinder, soft Cs followed by that Y vowel letter.

Great job.

Remember to say the words carefully.

So here were our soft Cs.

Remember, CE, CI and CY will often be soft Cs and our hard Cs, CA, CO, CU.

And also our CL encircled 'cause it's followed by a consonant letter.

Did you manage to sort those words correctly? Check now and make any corrections.

Onto our next learning cycle then, which is strategies to practise.

We all practised spelling words with a hard C today 'cause that's what we're concentrating on.

There may be different aspects, which can make each word challenging.

Remember to always try and notice them.

Difficult, cupboard, vehicle, like a car.

Recognise, discuss.

Look carefully at these words.

Do you think there's anything challenging about them, anything unique or difficult about them that you might want to look closely at and memorise when learning how to spell them? Pause the video and have a think now.

Great.

Well, there's a few things that I've noticed.

I've noticed that in vehicle, we can't really hear that H, can we? And in discuss, it has a double S.

In recognise, it sounds like a Zz, but it's an S-E ending.

In cupboard, I don't really hear the B.

It's cupboard, a compound word, but I don't hear the B when I pronounce them together.

Cupboard.

Difficult also has a double F and that U-L-T isn't easy to hear.

Difficult.

It's making an ult rather than an alt.

I didn't say difficult, so be really careful.

We're now gonna use some strategies to practise these spellings with a hard C.

Remember to also consider the other elements of the word that are tricky.

Paying really close attention to words is really important when practising and learning them as spellings.

Spelling rules can help us to know how to spell words.

And we've looked at that spelling rule today, haven't we? For whether we use a hard C or a soft C, but there is no replacement for good old-fashioned practise.

When we practise, we remember the word more easily.

We get better at noticing how it's spelt 'cause we look carefully at it and we spend time with the word, and then we feel more confident when using it ourselves.

There are many different strategies that we can use to help us with spelling practise.

We're today going to try a really cool strategy called the pyramid letters strategy.

Can you say that for me? Pyramid letters.

Do the action as well.

Pyramid letters.

The pyramid strategy helps us in several ways.

First, it helps us through visualising the word.

We have to look really carefully at the word and we pay close attention to each individual letter in the word.

And we consider any letters that are tricky.

Then we repeat copy.

We copy the word out several times, starting with one letter and then adding another letter below and then another letter and another letter.

This helps us to focus on each letter in the word and to repeat copy.

Each one helps us to remember each part of the word.

Also, there's really good links between our hand and our brain here.

If we use our cursive handwriting, it will help us remember the spelling even better.

It goes into what we call our motor memory.

How does the pyramid strategy help us? Select the correct answers.

Off you go.

Great.

So let's go through these.

It makes us pay close attention to a spelling, looking at each letter in turn.

Well, yes it does 'cause we write out each letter again and add another letter each time below.

Does it help us by chunking the word up into syllables, those beats? I don't think so.

It helps us remember the spelling by repeat copying.

Yes, we're copying each letter again and again, aren't we? And writing from memory helps to reinforce the spelling in our mind.

We're not testing our memory here.

It's not like the look, cover, write, check strategy.

We can have the copy of the spelling out in front of us so we make sure we're repeat copying it correctly.

So pyramid strategy helps us in two ways in particular.

We have to pay really close attention by looking at each letter in turn and then we repeat copy.

So we really memorise each letter in that word.

So I'm going to have a go now using my pyramid letters strategy for the word vehicle.

So I look really carefully at that word vehicle, V-E.

And there's that H there that we don't necessarily hear.

And it's that hard C, L-E.

And I know it's a hard C as well because it's followed by that consonant letter that is not an H.

So V, then V-E.

Okay, ve.

V-E-H, that naughty letter H there.

V-E-H-I.

V-E-H-I-C.

V-E-H-I-C-L.

And then finally adding our E.

Notice here how I'm looking each time and concentrating on each letter and repeat copying that letter.

I'm really confident now about the spelling of the word vehicle.

V-E-H-I-C-L-E.

I'd like you to practise using our pyramid letters strategy now for one of the spelling words that we've been looking at so far in this lesson.

Pick a word with a hard C.

Off you go.

Brilliant, fantastic.

Make sure you share your learning with those around you and with me now.

I love seeing these pyramid letters written out.

Remember to look carefully at the spelling to make sure you're copying each letter correctly.

Try choosing the words as well that you think are the hardest to spell.

This is a really great strategy because we're really engaging carefully with each letter in the word and committing it to our memory.

I will try using a different strategy now, the naughty letter strategy, to remember that P in cupboard.

I love this strategy as we get to draw out the naughty letter larger and often put a naughty face onto it as well.

It draws our attention really closely to that naughty letter in that word.

So here we have the compound word cupboard.

It's the words cup and board put together, but when we pronounce it, we don't hear that P.

So I can consider this my naughty letter.

So I've looked closely at the word, I've said it and I've found my naughty letter.

Remember to look closely and pay attention to any tricky parts.

And in this word it's my P.

Then I copy the word out, showing the tricky part and writing that letter larger.

So here I have cupboard.

I've written my P larger and I've also given it a naughty little angry face as you can see.

That's going to help me to remember that that P is there.

I'd like you to try using that naughty letter strategy now to practise one of our spelling words that has a hard C.

Off you go.

Brilliant job.

Share those with me now and those around you.

Which letter have you picked and why? Why was it a naughty letter? Share that with us.

So remember that this strategy is really useful 'cause it helps us to focus on and then remember any tricky letter or letters in a particular spelling.

I now can remember that that P is there and it's my naughty letter in cupboard.

So right now, we are going to spell some words that contain a hard C.

Please remember to sound it out.

Think of any spelling rules.

Remember, those rules we've looked at for those vowel letters or consonant letters that will follow a hard or soft C.

Read the word and check.

Just listen to me say the spellings first of all.

Remember to sound them out.

Think of any spelling rules.

Read the word and check.

The first word is difficult, difficult.

Number two is cupboard.

Remember that naughty letter.

Number three is vehicle.

Number four is recognise.

And number five is discuss.

So I'll say 'em again.

Difficult, cupboard, vehicle, recognise, discuss.

Pause the video and have a go at writing those words now.

Off you go.

Brilliant job, team.

Really, really lovely sounding out the words there.

Consideration of where your hard C was as well.

And also, I could see people trying to remember any other difficult elements about those words.

With that in mind, our first word is difficult.

Remember, this has a double F in it and then it has that word cult in it as well, C-U-L-T.

We don't always hear that U there, do we? But it's D-I-F-F-I, diffi and then cult, C-U-L-T.

Cupboard was our next word.

What was the naughty letter here? It was that naughty P, wasn't it? It's that compound word, cup and board, cupboard.

So C-U-P-B-O-A-R-D.

Then we have vehicle.

What was our naughty letter here? We just practised this one with the pyramid letters strategy, didn't we? So it had that naughty H in it, V-E-H-I-C-L-E, and it's that hard C followed by that consonant letter L.

Then we then had recognise.

Here we have a hard C followed by that vowel letter O, recog.

That bit's quite straightforward.

And then it's N-I-S-E.

It sounds like a Zz, doesn't it? But it's that S-E spelling at the end there, recognise.

And finally discuss.

Discuss.

Feel like the first part of this word's quite straightforward.

D-I-S and then it's our C, hard C 'cause it's followed by that U vowel spelling and then it's S-S, double S, discuss.

How did you do there? Share your learning and make any corrections now.

Off you go.

Onto our final learning cycle then, which is going to be spelling some curriculum words.

Curriculum words are those words which are going to appear a lot in our reading and writing.

They might have slightly tricky elements to them.

So it's really important that we know how to spell them.

This word is calendar.

Occur.

The word occur is a verb meaning for something to happen or take place.

The accident occurred in the early hours of the morning.

Occupy.

If you occupy something, you take it over and you take up that space, you're occupying it.

What do you notice about these spellings? Is there anything unique or interesting about them? Can you compare anything about them? Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent, lovely conversations going on there and some great careful thinking about each of our spellings here.

So I've noticed a couple of things.

The word calendar has three syllables.

Calendar.

That final E-R sound or R sound, calendar, is actually spelled with an A-R, but I don't say calendar, I say calendar.

So it's that er, but spelled A-R.

Watch out for that.

The word occur and occupy both have a double C.

Occur has that final er sound, but it's spelt U-R this time, occur.

Two syllables there, but it's that er but spelt U-R.

So watch out for that.

So which of these words that we've just read is spelled correctly? Select the correct spelling of calendar, occur and occupy.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

So calendar is that er, isn't it? It's three syllables, calendar, but it's that er spelled A-R.

So watch out for that.

Occur.

That verb meaning for something to happen or take place.

Occur has that double C and it's that er but this time spelled U-R.

And occupy, again double C, and with that Y making that I sound at the end, occupy.

Great.

So because these are such high frequency and curriculum words, which are going to appear a lot, it's really important we are confident with writing, spelling and reading them.

So we're gonna use the look, cover, write, check strategy now.

A really great independent strategy that allows you to practise words.

This is where you look carefully at a word.

So I'm looking at calendar, those three syllables, calendar.

The tricky bit here is that A-R at the end that I need to remember for that er sound.

I cover it up then, calendar, and it's calendar, isn't it? A-R but making that er sound.

I have a good at writing it in my neatest handwriting, of course.

I then check back now, that final stage and make sure I got it right.

I did get it right, but just because I got it right once doesn't mean I stopped there.

I keep using that strategy of look, cover, write, check a number of times using my cursive handwriting to really embed that spelling into my long-term memory.

I'd like you to use this strategy now for calendar, occur and occupy.

Remember to look carefully at the spellings to consider what's difficult about it.

Pause the video.

Off you go now.

Great job, team.

So I'm hoping you've got calendar, occur and occupy written out correctly a number of times using that strategy.

If you don't, make sure you make any corrections now.

Off you go.

Great job in spelling today, team.

We've been looking at the soft C and the hard C and we've been particularly concentrating on that hard C.

Ka, ka.

They refer to two different sounds that the letter C can represent in English spelling, often depending on the letters that follow it.

If the vowel letter is A, O or U or a consonant letter follows the letter C, it is pronounced as a hard C.

Ka, ka.

When we practise spellings, we remember how to spell words more easily and we can really consider the more difficult elements about those spellings as well.

Keep up that great practise and I'll see you again soon.