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 yet write into today's spelling lesson.

In today's spelling lesson, we negotiate spelling words using the soft C.

The outcome will be, I can spell words using soft C.

Here are the key words for today's learning, my turn, your turn; Soft C, hard C, vowel letters, consonant letters.

So the soft C sounds like an S, or "S" in the word 'city', 'serial' or 'mercy'.

The hard C sounds like a K or 'K' in words like 'cat', 'cup', 'coat', or 'climb'.

Vow letters are the letters, 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u', and sometimes 'y' that represent our vowel sounds.

And consonant letters are all the letters in the alphabet that represent consonant sounds.

Those sounds made by the blocking of the air, by the teeth, tongue, lips or palettes, 'P', 'T', 'L', 'M', for instance.

So today we are going to be looking at both the soft C and the hard C ,and some rules around the letters or the vowel letters and consonant letters that often follow these sounds.

Here is the outline for today's learning.

We're gonna begin by doing some investigating of 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 hard C or soft C then.

Read the following words.

Celery, which is a vegetable, circle, cylinder, that 3D shape.

Be keeping an ear out here for the sounds that you hear.

Access, decide, centipede, cereal, fancy.

So you may have noticed that they all include the letter C and a soft C sound.

(Mr. Moss mimicking) We can see those here in celery, circle, and cylinder, at the beginning, in access in the middle, and in decide in the middle.

In centipede and cerial at the beginning, and in fancy before Y at the end.

If the vowel letters 'e', 'i', or 'y', follow the C, it is pronounced as a soft C and not a hard C, 'c'.

A soft C sounds like a 'S'.

The letter 'Y' is making a vowel sound in these words with a soft C.

So for instance, the word fancy, the 'Y' is making an 'e' sound, a vowel sound.

So you can see here celery, the 'C' is followed by an 'e', circle, is followed by an 'i', cylinder, it's making an 'eh', 'eh', the 'Y' there is making a vowel sound, access, followed by an 'e', decide, the 'c' is followed by an 'i', centipede, followed by an 'e', serial, followed by an 'e', and in fancy it's that 'y', but it's making that vowel 'e'.

Which words contain a soft C? Read these words and decide.

Brilliant job team! So let's read them and listen carefully.

Charming, but it has a 'c' in it, but that's making a 'ch' 'ch' sound, it's not a soft C, is it? Cyclist, ooh, that has both a soft and a hard C in it.

Cy- followed by that 'y', making that vowel sound 'i', cyclist, and then 'c', 'c' followed by 'l' our consonant, so it makes a hard C sound, cyclist.

Acorn, 'ch', 'ch', ooh, that's followed by a 'o' vowel, isn't it? So it's making that hard C, so it's not a soft C, but decision, my C there is soft, like the word decide or deciding.

It's followed by my vowel letter 'i', so decision.

And it's that 'zn' spelled S-I-O-N at the end there as well.

So cyclists and decision both have that soft C, and cyclists an interesting one 'cause it has both the soft C and the hard C in it.

Remember our soft C sound usually occurs when the letter C comes before, okay, or is followed by the vowel letters, 'e', 'i', or 'y', and that 'y' is making a vowel sound there.

A quick check again, the letter C makes a soft 'C' sound when it is followed by, select the correct answers, off you go.

Great job team, the vowel letters, 'e' or 'i'.

Yet those vowel letters, the vowel letters, 'a', 'o' or 'u'? No, not those vowel letters, if the C was being followed by those vowel letters, it would be a hard C.

The vowel letter 'Y' when it's making a vowel sound, yes, and any consonant letter, no.

So soft C and hard C refer to two different sounds that the letter C can represent in English spelling, often depending on the letter that follows it as we've looked at.

The hard C sound usually occurs when the letter C comes before the vowel letters 'a', 'o' or 'u' or a consonant letter but not 'h', be careful 'cause that can make a 'ch' 'ch'.

The soft C that we are concentrating on today sound usually occurs when the letter C comes before the vowel letters, 'e', 'i', or 'y', remember it's that Y making that vowel sound.

Read the words below for me and match the words to the sounds that they contain.

So they contain a hard C, a soft C, or both a soft C and a hard C.

Read the words, listen carefully, decide whether they have a hard C, soft C, or both, and think carefully about the rule that we've looked at with the different letters that often follow those Cs.

Off you go.

Great job team! So let's read the words crafty or cra-a-fty, depending on how you pronounce it.

Well it's followed by a consonant letter, isn't it, 'r'? So it's a hard C.

Centre, now this is an interesting one, centre, it is a soft C, isn't it? 'Cause it's followed by that vowel letter 'e'.

Be careful with that '-re' spelling at the end there as well for that 'r' sound.

Crazy, again, hard C, 'ch', 'ch', because it's followed by the consonant letter 'r', watch out for the 'Y' at the end there, making that 'e' sound.

Cynic, oh, listen to that one, cynic.

Oh, that has both doesn't it, has a soft C at the beginning 'cause it's followed by that 'Y' making that 'ay', 'ay sound and then that hard C at the end, cynic.

That's an interesting one as well 'cause you might often expect that C at the end, that hard C to be spelled 'ck', 'cause it's after a short vowel sound, 'ay', 'ay', cynic.

But it's just a C, a cynic is someone who's distrustful of the things they hear or read.

And cyclist, well again, we have a soft C here, 'cy', followed by that 'y' making that 'i' sound, cyclist.

And then 'ch', 'ch', a hard C, followed by that consonant letter L, so it's a soft C and a hard C.

Great job team! For our practise task, now what we are going to do is we're going to place the words below into the table by sorting them according to the spelling which represents the 's' sound, that's 'ss'.

Watch out for the words with no 's' sound at all.

We have to read the words and listen to them carefully listening out for that 's' phoney.

Consider which spellings are making that 'S' sound, is it 's', double 'ss', a soft 'c', or is there no 's' sound? Read the words and sort 'em now, off you go.

Brilliant job team! So I'm hoping you've managed to sort them like this, Sultana and said had our 'S' sound at the beginning and it was spelled with single 'S'.

Missed and class or class, both had our double SS, soft C was celebrate and symmetry, and we can see here they're both followed by that 'e' vowel letter.

And no 's' sound clearly an echo.

They had that hard C both in there echo, 'ch', 'ch', with that 'ch' and clearly with that 'cl'.

Great job! Did you manage to sort these correctly? Take some time now to read the words again and make sure you got 'em in the correct columns.

So we are now going to have a look at some strategies to practise.

We all practise spelling words with the soft C in them as that's what we're concentrating on today.

There may be different aspects which make each word challenging.

See if you can notice some of the aspects of the words that we're about to read, and consider what might be challenging about them.

My turn, your turn, decimal, I need you to round to the nearest decimal point.

Circulate, the air conditioning, circulated fresh air around the room.

Century, a century is a hundred years.

Certain, I'm certain you're right.

Bicycle, I rode my bicycle across the playground.

Have a look at these words again for me, they obviously all have our soft C.

Is there anything else difficult about them? Say them again and have a think.

Brilliant! Well, I've noticed a few different things, in decimal that 'al' spelling sounds like an 'ol', doesn't it, just an 'l' at the end.

Circulate, it's quite straightforward.

Century though, has that N-T-U there making a 'ch', century, 'ch', 'ch', so be careful, and it's that 'y' at the end there making that 'e' sound.

Certain, ooh, sounds like such 'un', 'un', but it's spelled 'ain', isn't it? 'ai', so watch out for that.

And bicycle has that Y doesn't it? Making that 'i' sound, and that 'le' for that 'cle' at the end.

Be careful with words, and the reason we're going to use some strategies to practise now is to really concentrate in on the difficult elements of words like this.

Spelling rules can help us to know how to spell words and remember those rules that we've looked at today for using a hard C or a soft C.

But we also need to practise.

When we practise we remember the words more easily.

You get better at noting how they're spelled and you feel more confident when using them.

There are many different strategies that we can use to practise our spellings.

Today we're going to try the 'big letters' strategy.

Can you say it for me? 'Big letters'.

Let's begin by talking about how the big letter strategy can help us, and then we're gonna have a go at using it.

It can help us through visualisation.

As with most spelling strategies, we have to look very carefully at the word paying close attention to its spelling at any tricky parts.

Then we repeat copy.

You copy the word out, starting small, getting bigger, and then getting even bigger each time.

By repeat copying, we're embedding that spelling into our memory.

If we use our best cursive handwriting, it will help us to remember the spelling even better, this works with something called our motor memory, that link between our hand and our brain.

What order do these go in for this strategy? Do we write biggest, look, write small or write bigger? Put these into the correct order for this strategy now.

Off you go.

Great job! As of any spelling strategy, the first thing we always do is look carefully at the word.

It is implied with this strategy, we get bigger.

So we start small, we write bigger, our comparative adjective there, and then we write our superlative, biggest.

You can write it out three times, starting small, getting bigger, and then getting to your biggest.

We should always look carefully at the spellings before we practise them to consider what's difficult about them.

So I will try using the big letter strategy with this word bicycle.

I begin by looking carefully at the word don't I, bicycle, and I can write it out small.

Okay, as that soft C followed by the 'y' and then a hard C followed by 'le'.

I then write it bigger, and then I write it biggest.

I'm working on repeat copying here and embedding that spelling into my long-term memory.

Should always check to make sure that I've written out correctly as well.

Oh, and I've gone even bigger here.

Finally, my superlative, my biggest.

I'd like you to try using our big letter strategy now to practise one of the spelling words that we've looked at today with a soft C.

Off you go team.

Brilliant job! Share those with us now.

Try choosing the word you think the hardest to spell when using this strategy as it will give you the opportunity to look very carefully at each part of the word.

I will now try using the pyramid letters to practise century, this is another really useful strategy.

Century remember has that difficult N-T-U making, that 'ch', 'ch', and that Y at the end.

I start out by writing the c, and then ce, cen, and you can see I'm adding the next letter each time.

And this is a really great strategy because you get to concentrate on each individual letter, I'ma repeat copying again.

The U now, C-E-N-T-U-R, C-E-N-T-U-R-Y, and I've completed the word, starting from the first letter all the way through to the last.

I'd like to use, try using the pyramid less strategies to practise some of the spelling words that we've been looking at today with a soft C, off you go team.

Great job! It makes us pay close attention to a spelling looking at each letter in turn, and that's why I really like this strategy as well.

Remember to use those strategies to practise our spellings.

Right now we are going to spell some words that use our soft C.

Please remember too, sound out each word.

Think of the spelling rules that we've looked at for where the soft and the hard C will come.

Read the word and check.

So listening carefully, the first word is decimal.

Remember what's tricky about these words as well.

Decimal, round to the nearest decimal point for me.

Number two, circulate, the air conditioning circulated fresh air, fresh cool air around the room.

Number three, century, a hundred years.

Number four, certain, I'm certain you are right.

And number five, bicycle.

I'll say these one more time.

Decimal, circulate, century, certain, bicycle.

Off you go team.

Fantastic job! Really great listening out there for the hard and soft Cs in these words.

And also great consideration of the letters that might follow that soft C.

So the first word was decimal, so we hear here are 'i', don't we, decimal, so we know it's going to be our soft C.

And remember at the end it's that 'al' spelling for that 'ol' sound, decimal.

It's not dekimal, it's decimal, it's a soft C followed by our vowel letter 'i'.

The next word was circulate.

If we know the word circle here, we have a link here with circulates.

So it's that C-I-R, it's that soft C followed by that 'i' isn't it? Sir, and then 'ch', 'ch', we have a hard C followed by that 'u', don't we? That 'u' vowel letter, circu- and then -late, there's actually the word late in circulate.

So it's this one here, soft C followed by an 'i', and then a hard C followed by a 'u', and then 'late', circulate.

The next word was century.

Soft C is followed by our 'e' vowel letter, cen- and then 't', 't', that 'tu', 'ch', 'ch', making that 'ch', century.

T-U-R-Y at the end, that 'y' making that 'e' sound, century.

The next one was certain, I'm certain you're right.

Again, it's going to be a soft C, that's 's', because it's followed by our 'e' vowel letter.

And remember it's A-I-N, I know it sounds like certain, but it's 'a-i-n'.

Sometimes it can sound like certain as well, be careful with that one.

And finally, bicycle, Remember this has both a soft and a hard C in it, by, B-I, Cy, C-Y, and it's that 'y' making that 'i', and then 'cle', hard C, and then our 'le' ending, bicycle.

Great! How did you do that? Share your learning and imagine mistakes, make any corrections now, off you go.

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

Let's read some words, my turn, your turn.

Decide, you need to decide the answer.

Notice, we spend a long time trying to notice different spelling rules.

Centre, at the centre of an apple is its core.

Look carefully at these words again for me, do you notice anything interesting about how they're spelled compared to how they sound? Pause the video and have a think.

Great! Well, I've noticed a few things, decide has a soft C like the word decision.

It sounds like a 'de' at the start of the word, doesn't it? But it's spelled D-E, so it's decision, but it's 'de' spelling at the beginning, so watch out for that.

And then it has our soft C followed by our 'i' vowel letter.

The word notice has the letter 'ce' representing that 'c' sound as well, like practise, and centre has a soft C at the beginning, and then that 're' making that 'er' sound centre.

Be careful with that is the 're' ending.

With that in mind, which of these words that we've just read is spelled correctly? Choose the correct spelling of decide, notice and centre.

Off you go.

Great job team! So decide, remember it sounds like 'di', DI, but it's 'de' and then it's our soft 'ide', decide, D-E-C-I-D-E.

The next was notice, be careful at the end here, it's our soft C, 'ce' for that notice and centre.

The tricky bit to remember here is the soft c at the beginning 'cen', and then the 'tre' is T-R-E, it's not E-R, it's that 'a', but it's spelled 're'.

Great job! We're gonna use the strategy now, look, cover, write, check to practise these spellings as their curriculum words, which will appear a lot in our reading and writing, so we want to be confident with reading and spelling them.

So we look carefully at a word like decide and consider what's difficult about it.

I'd say the most difficult part is probably that 'e', isn't it? That sounds like it should be an 'i', decide, and our soft C, remember 'ide'.

I look carefully, I then cover it up so I can't see it and have a go at writing at my neatest handwriting, ideally using my cur of scripts.

I have a go, and then I check back to see how I did.

I got it right, but just 'cause I got it right once doesn't mean I stopped there, I have a go at looking, covering, writing and checking, a number of times to really embed that spelling into my long term memory.

Use this strategy now, decide, notice and centre, write them a number of times, off you go.

Great job team! So did you manage to spell them correctly? Check now, share your learning, make any corrections.

Remember, this is a really useful independent strategy that allows you to look carefully at the difficult elements of words.

Great job in spelling today team! We've been looking at that soft C and that hard C.

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

If the vowel letters 'a', 'o' or 'u', or a consonant letter follows the letter C, it's pronounced as a hard C, 'ch'.

If the vowel letters 'e', 'i', or 'y', follow the letter C, it is pronounced as a soft C, 'c'.

When you practise spellings, you remember how to spell the words more easily.

Remember to look carefully at words before you practise spelling them to consider what's difficult about them and to embed those spellings into your long-term memory.

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