Lesson video

Hi there, I'm Mr. Moss.

I love spelling and I'm really looking forward to teaching you today.

With you today, you need to bring your thinking brains, your looking eyes, and your listening ears.

As well as that, something to write with and write on would also be really helpful as well as having something or someone to talk to.

All right, let's waste no more time and get straight into today's spelling lesson.

In this spelling lesson, we're going to be revising spelling patterns and links to sounds.

The outcome will be, "I can spell words containing the same and different sounds." Here are the keywords for today's learning.

My turn, your turn.

The first word is phoneme.

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can change a word's meaning.

The next word is grapheme.

A grapheme is a letter or group of letters that can represent a sound, otherwise known as a spelling.

And exception.

An exception is a case or situation that does not follow the usual or expected rule or pattern.

And finally, letter string.

A letter string is a group of letters that are written together in a word.

So today, we're gonna be looking at a variety of letter strings and graphemes that represent particular sounds.

As well as that, we're gonna look at some of those words that don't follow the patterns that we're looking at, those exceptions.

So here's the outline.

We're going to be revising spelling patterns linked to sounds or phonemes.

We're gonna look at the same sound but different spelling and then the same spelling but different sounds.

And we're gonna finish out by spelling some curriculum words.

Let's get on then with looking at the same sound or same phoneme, but different spelling or different grapheme.

Let's read some words.

Employee.

So someone who works for an employer.

Dream.

Complete.

We.

Money.

Funnily.

Mischief.

Conceive.

All of these words contain the ee sound.

The ee sound or phoneme can be represented with a variety of different spellings or graphemes.

Think back to our keywords.

The spellings ee, ea, and e-e are the most common representation of this phoneme.

And we can see those here in employee, dream, and complete.

However, we can also see some other representations.

We can see the grapheme ee, ey, Y, ie, and and ei that can all represent this sound.

Our pronunciation of some words might vary based upon our accent.

How would you say mischief? Some people might say mischief, some people might say mischief.

It can be dependent upon regional accent.

In some cases, that ie will make an E sound.

So can you please match the spelling to the representation of the E sound it contains? So requires you to read the words on the left and then match it to the representation.

Off you go.

Good job, team.

So peach is our ea representation, that really common representation for that E sound.

Money has that ey, which is often found at the end of words like honey, monkey.

Chief, that's that ie representation.

Receive, that's that ei representation.

Those two, the ie and the ei can easily be confused and we're looking at some rules to support us with those in this lesson.

And finally, funny, that Y for that E sound often found at the end of adjectives.

What do you notice about these words? Belief, receive, deceit, priest, niece, inconceivable, field, grieving.

Look carefully at these words again.

My suggestion is to consider both the phonemes and also the graphemes, the spellings within them.

Have a think now.

Great.

Absolutely.

That ee phoneme, which you would've heard if you said the words, can be spelt with ie or ei.

And these letter strings are very easy to confuse.

The ie or ei sound is often found in the middle of a word.

Knowing which spelling can be really, really difficult, can't it? And there are some rules that can help us.

The main rule that we follow is I before E except after C.

Can you say that for me? I before E except after C.

Great.

It means the spelling ie is used unless the E phoneme, that sound, comes after a C, when the ei spelling is then used.

So here are some examples of some I before E words, thief, niece, field, grief.

And here are some after C words.

Inconceivable.

So it's our ei spelling.

Deceit.

Again, our ei spelling.

In this instance, that E sound is following a C.

Many words follow this rule.

I before E words, belief.

No C before ie, so it's ie.

Handkerchief.

It's a ch, ch.

There's no C, it's an H coming before our ie.

So it's ie.

Shield.

And here are some after C words.

Receive, ceiling, deceive, and often, that C is making that soft S, S, sound.

This rule just applies to words where ie or ei are making that E sound.

So don't apply this, okay, to other spellings, just where they're making that E phoneme.

There are some exceptions as well that don't follow our patterns.

Remember, back to our keywords.

We had that word exceptions.

Protein, caffeine, and seize are all ei, but they're not following a C.

In protein, it's coming after a T, in caffeine after an F, and in seize after an S.

So I'd like you to read the words below.

I'd then like you to sort them into the table by their spelling.

Are they I either before E words, after C words, or exceptions? Off you go.

Brilliant job, team.

So we had the words shrieked and niece, both contain that E phoneme and it's our ie, because they're not coming after a C.

Then we have receipt and perceive, again, contain that E phoneme, don't they? That E sound, receipt, perceived.

And it's ei, because they're after C words.

And remember that C there's making that S sound.

And then we have our exceptions, caffeine and seize, which are both ei, but they're not coming after a C, coming after an F and an S respectively.

So they're not following the main rules that we've learnt, I before E except after C.

So sometimes just looking at a word can help us to know if it's spelled correctly.

I'm going to compare two spellings and decide which is the correct spelling.

So here we have yield.

Yield can mean to produce or it can also mean the amount of a product that has been produced, if it's a noun.

So yield, now if I were to use my rules here, I before E except after C, I would apply that and I know it would be my ie spelling.

But also looking at it, I can see, I think it is going to be my ie spelling.

Deceitful is our next one.

Now again, we know here deceit is our root word.

It has that C, doesn't it? And our general rule is, unless it's an exception, I before E except after C.

So they're coming after this C.

So the one that looks correct there for me is my ei spelling.

You are going to compare two spellings and decide which is the correct spelling now.

I'd like you to think carefully about the rules that we've looked at, but watch out for exceptions.

Also consider which you think look correct.

Remember, there are some exceptions to the rule I before E except after C.

So here are the words, thieves, protein, perceive.

Pause the video now, select the correct spellings.

Remember our rules.

Also consider which ones will look correct.

Great job.

So thieves, it's ie spelling, it's not coming before a C.

Our root word thief also has this ie.

Protein, that was one of our exceptions.

It's not following a C, but it's the ei spelling.

And finally perceive, again with that C making that soft S, S.

And it's I before E except after C so it's an after C.

So it's our ei and then ve at the end there.

So what I'd like us to do now is to practise spelling some words that contain this either ie or ei spelling.

Remember to sound out the words.

Think of the spelling rules we've looked at, I before E except after C.

Remember those words, which are exceptions that we've looked at so far this lesson, words like protein and caffeine.

And remember to read the word and check.

So listen to me carefully.

The first word is belief.

I have a strong belief.

Number two is grieving.

Grieving.

Remember to listen out carefully as to where that E phoneme is coming and consider the spellings or the graphemes that we've looked at for that E phoneme.

So you have belief and grieving.

We also have perceive.

Number four is protein.

And number five is receipt.

So I'll say this one more time.

Belief, grieving, perceive, protein, receipt.

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

Off you go.

Excellent job, team.

I'm really, really impressed.

So the first word we looked at was belief.

Now be careful with this one.

Belief.

Be careful with that first bit.

It can't be obvious that it's be at the beginning, which is what it is, and then E, you can hear that E phoneme, can't you, after the L? It's coming after an L, so I know it's going to be I before you except after C.

So it's my ie spellings, since it's coming after an L, belief.

The next was grieving.

Grieving.

Again, our root word here is grief, grieving.

It's going to be ie, because it's coming after an R and not a C.

And it's not one of those words, which is an exception.

The next was perceive.

Now this is this soft C, isn't it? Perceive.

I know it's a C, I before E except after C, so it's gonna be an except after C.

So it's my ei and then ve, brilliant.

Then we have protein.

Alarm bells should be ring here.

This was one of our exceptions, you're totally right.

So it's my ei spelling, but not after a C for that protein.

Brilliant.

And finally, receipt.

Now receipt's an interesting one.

Receipt is an interesting one, because it has a slightly naughty letter in it as well.

So receipt has a silent almost P in it too.

So it's that soft C.

C spelling is an after C.

So it's, I know it's gonna be my ei spelling and then watch out, it has that P and then a T.

Watch out for that naughty P as well.

How did you do there, team? How did you do with protein, that exception in particular? Share your learning and make any corrections now.

And remember our rule, I before E except after C, but we'll watch out for those exceptions.

Onto our next learning cycle then, which is same spelling, different sound.

So just as a phoneme can be spelled in more than one way, the same spelling may represent more than one phoneme or sound.

The ie graphemes can represent a number of phonemes.

We've seen that it can represent that E sound, but it can represent other sounds as well.

I'm wondering if you can think of any.

Pause the video and have a think.

Brilliant.

Well, I know it can definitely represent an I sound and I know it can represent an E sound, but there are even more.

In the word like lie is making that I sound, same in pie, diet, cries, replied, applied, patient, as part of that unt.

Efficient, efficiently, sufficient, soldier.

So ie is a common way to represent that phoneme I.

Sometimes it is formed when a word ending in a Y has the suffix es or ed added to it like in replied and applied or cry becoming cries.

In these words, patient, efficient, efficiently, sufficient, and soldier, our ie is contributing to that sh and unt sounds, shunt.

The ie spelling can also break other learnt rules that you may know.

Friend.

It's making an E, E sound there.

Sieve, it's making an I, I sound.

Shield.

Obedient.

Diet.

Science.

In these words, the letters ie are making different sounds.

We need to learn and remember these spellings.

So let's read through them one more time.

Friend, sieve, shield, obedient, diet, and science.

And let's remember they contain that ie grapheme, but making a variety of different phonemes or sounds.

So I'd like you now to sort these words below into the correct column.

Some words may go in more than one column.

Is it ie makes the sound I, is it ie makes a different sound, or is it ie created by adding a suffix? Hmm.

You need to read the words carefully, listen out.

Off you go.

Excellent job, team.

So let's read through these words first.

We have friend, parties, applied, tie, efficient, and pie.

Well, here in our ie making that I sound, we have pie and tie.

And then for ie making different sounds, we have friend and efficient.

Now interestingly in applied and parties, applied is an interesting one, because actually it is making that I sound.

But it's been created by the removal of the Y from the root word apply to create that ied suffix.

And in parties, our ie is making that E sound to create the plural of party.

So the ei letter string can represent a number of phonemes and it can be easily confused with that ie letter string that we've just been looking at.

Can you think of any? Have a think.

Great.

Well, here are some that I've thought of.

Rein, vein, beige like the colour, reign again, homophone with the first rein we looked at.

This is R-E-I-G-N, the reign of a king or queen.

Rein R-E-I-N is like the reins of a horse.

Deity like a god or goddess.

Foreign, forfeit, to give up.

Feisty, seismic.

So you can see here that our ei letter string can represent a number of phonemes.

It represents the I sound in feisty.

It can represent A in the middle of words like the words rein and vein, not to be confused with rain pitter-patter.

This is rain R-E-I-N like the reins of a horse.

Vein also not to be confused with a weather vane, but the veins as in the veins flowing through your body.

It makes an I sound in forfeit, forfeit.

It represents two sounds in deity, A, I, T.

A deity is a god or a goddess.

So could you sort these words into the correct column? You need to read them.

Is it the ei making the A sound, the ei making the I sound, or is it the ei making different sound or sounds? Read the words and sort them now, off you go.

Brilliant job.

Let's read the words first.

We have rein, deity, forfeit, feisty, and veins.

So I've sorted them like this.

Rein and veins plural there is making that A sound.

In forfeit, it's making a I, I sound.

In deity, is making two sounds, A and I.

And in feisty, it's making an I sound.

These seven words all contain the letter string O-U-G-H.

Cough.

(coughs) Tough, plough, through, though, bought, thorough.

In each word, the letter string is pronounced differently.

In cough, it's making an O, O sound.

In tough, it's making an U, U sound.

In plough, it's making an ow ow sound.

In through, it's making an oo sound.

In though, it's making an O sound.

In bought, it's making an O sound.

And in thorough, it's making an U sound.

The letter string O-U-G-H is quite common, but it can be really hard to remember.

I remember the spelling as oh you grumpy hippo.

The mnemonic oh you grumpy hippo can then help us.

Oh, you grumpy hippo, O-U-G-H.

And here's our grumpy hippo looking all hmm.

So can you please match the word to the sound that the O-U-G-H, oh you grumpy hippo letter string is making? You need to read the words and our sounds are or, oo, and O.

Off you go.

Great, great reading and great listening to you there.

Consider those phonemes.

So we have through, that's our oo.

Though is our O and thought is our O.

Notice how we have this similar letter string, but it's representing different sounds or phonemes.

So the ou letter string can also be pronounced differently.

It can be pronounced O, country, trouble, courage.

It can be pronounced O, soul, mouldy, boulder.

It can be pronounced ou, could, would, should, like book.

It can be pronounced oo like food, soup, you, youth.

And it pronounced ow like cow.

Shout, hour, outside.

See again here this same letter string ou can represent many different sounds.

The ou letter string is most commonly in the middle of a word and sometimes at the beginning, like in the word out.

It is rarely at the end of a word.

However, there are some exceptions to this.

Like the words you, that really high frequency word, and also the word caribou, which is a reindeer.

Sometimes just seeing the word in a sentence can help us to know whether the spelling looks right or not.

I always prefer group work.

Yep, absolutely.

It's our ou representation for that oo sound.

You need to double the ingredients in the recipe.

It's that U, U, but it's our O-U spelling.

It just looks right.

So could you choose the correct spelling in each sentence of the highlighted words? You need to read the sentence.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

The view from the window was breathtaking.

This is our ie letter string making that ooh sound there, view.

She had to forfeit her prize because she broke the rules.

This is our ei letter string making that I, I sound.

Too much hot weather will cause a drought.

This is that ow phoneme spelled with our oh you grumpy hippo and then a T.

And whatever happens, you should believe in yourself.

U, U, O-U-L-D.

It's our ou letter string there.

So we're gonna have a go now at spelling some of those words that we've been looking at carefully.

Please remember to sound out the word.

Think of any rules that we've looked at.

Read the word and check.

The first word is soldier.

The soldier went to battle.

The second word is seismic.

Number three is bought.

I bought something from the shops.

Number four is mouldier.

That wall is mouldier than the other.

Number five is coupon.

I used a coupon to buy something.

So we have soldier, seismic, bought, mouldier, coupon.

Pause the video now and have a go at writing them.

Off you go.

Brilliant job, team.

Really impressed.

This is really tricky because we are looking here at same spellings with different sounds.

We've been looking at a variety of letter strings as well.

So the first word was soldier.

Now this is a really tricky one, 'cause it is that ier spelling making that jer at the end.

That's a tricky one to remember.

So you definitely need to imprint that into your brain.

The next one is seismic.

It's that I sound being made by our ei letter string.

Bought was our next one.

It's that or sound and it's our oh you grumpy hippo.

Then we had mouldier, that O sound being made there.

It's our ou letter string.

Our root word here is mould.

If you know how to spell that mould, we now how to spell mouldier, that comparative adjective with that ier suffix.

Mould is spelled M-O-U-L-D.

It's that ou letter string.

And finally, coupon.

It's the same left string as mould, but now making a different sound, making an oo sound.

Coupon.

C-O-U-P-O-N.

How did you do there? Are there any that you need to do any particular practise with there? Make a mental note, make corrections, and ensure you do some practise with them.

And onto our final learning cycle, which is spelling curriculum words.

Let's read the following words.

Shoulder.

Notice there that it has our ou letter string, doesn't it? Committee.

Again, that has that E sound, doesn't it? But this time spelled with our ee grapheme.

So I can see here that in shoulder, we have our ou letter string.

It's making a strange O sound, isn't it? Shoulder.

In shoulder, I can see that the smaller word should can be found in it.

However, the ou is making a different sound, in shoulder, isn't it? It's not making that sh, U, U sound.

It's making an O sound.

So be careful.

There are three sets of double letters in committee, which can make it tricky to remember.

It means we can sometimes get confused with them being single letters.

We have double M, double T, and a double E for that E phoneme at the end.

Let's look at these words one more time.

Shoulder and committee.

And let's commit them to our memory.

Remember that ou in shoulder, double M, double T, and double E in committee.

The double T, it can be the hardest bit to remember, because a smaller word commit is seen in it and only has the single T.

So which of the words that we've just looked at is spelled correctly.

Point now to shoulder and committee.

Off you go.

Brilliant.

So shoulder remember has that ou letter string in.

S-H-O-U-L-D-E-R.

Committee has three sets of double letters, doesn't it? Double M, double T, and double E.

So because these are curriculum words, it's really important that we need to learn how to spell 'em as we're going to be using 'em quite a lot.

They have slightly tricky elements to them as well.

It's really important that we know.

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

This would also be a really useful strategy for any of those words that you found trickier in the previous learning cycles to try and commit them to your memory.

This is where you look carefully to word and consider what's tricky about it.

Shoulder has that ou letter string making that strange sound.

I look at it, I then cover it up, and I know it's that S-H-O-U-L-D-E-R, and I have a go at writing in my neatest handwriting and then I check back to see how I did.

This is called the look, cover, write, check strategy, and allows you to be really independent and self-check.

I'd like you to use it now to write out shoulder and committee a number of times.

Even if you get it right first time, keep practising it.

Remember, look, cover, write, check a number of times.

Really embed it into your long-term memory.

Off you go.

Brilliant job, team.

So I'm hoping you've got shoulder and committee written out a number of times like this.

Remember, shoulder has that ou and committee has three of double letters.

Particularly difficult to remember is that double T, 'cause of that root word commit.

Did you manage to spell them correctly? Make any corrections now.

Off you go.

Well done today.

We've been revising spelling patterns linked to sounds.

Some sounds, phonemes can be represented by a number of different spellings, graphemes.

The same spelling or grapheme can represent more than one sound or phoneme.

Looking at a word in a sentence can help us to know if it is spelled correctly.

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