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Year 2

Applying the new 'or' spellings, including 'ore', 'ough' and 'a'

I can apply three new spellings for the 'or' phoneme: 'ore', 'ough' and 'a'.

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New
New
Year 2

Applying the new 'or' spellings, including 'ore', 'ough' and 'a'

I can apply three new spellings for the 'or' phoneme: 'ore', 'ough' and 'a'.

Download all resources
Share activities with pupils

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. ‘ore’ is a representation of the 'or' phoneme that usually comes at the end of a word.
  2. 'ough' and 'a' are alternative spellings of the 'or' phoneme.
  3. Most words using the 'ough' spelling are past tense verbs.
  4. The 'or' sound is usually spelt as 'a' before 'l' or 'll'.
  5. How to spell the common exception words: war, warm and towards.

Common misconception

Children can get confused by sounds that use the same spellings, such as 'ar' and 'or'.

Remind children that the same sound can be represented in a number of ways and the same spelling can represent a number of sounds.

Keywords

  • Digraph - two letters that represent one sound

  • Trigraph - three letters that represent one sound

  • Verb - a doing or being word

  • Past tense - shows the action happened before now

There are a lot of hard spellings covered with these patterns, so only focus on the most useful ones for your class or pupils.
Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Pick the spelling that matches the sentence: After school, I like to __________ with my friends.
tork
Correct answer: talk
talck
toorc
Q2.
Choose the 'or' spellings that match to the words.
Correct Answer:a,ball

ball

Correct Answer:ough,thought

thought

Correct Answer:ore,snore

snore

Q3.
The 'ough' spelling of the 'or' sound is used in verbs in which tense? For example, 'fought', 'bought', 'thought'.
Correct answer: past tense
present tense
future tense
Q4.
Which sentences are in the past tense?
I bring my bag to school.
Correct answer: I brought by bag to school.
I think it is my friend's birthday.
Correct answer: I thought it was my friend's birthday.
Q5.
Choose the correct spelling for the word in bold in the following sentence: I need a borl to play with.
bal
Correct answer: ball
boughl
Q6.
Write the correct spelling for the word in bold in the following sentence: I brort my coat into the classroom.
Correct Answer: brought

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Pick the spelling that matches the sentence: The sun is shining and it is __________ today.
werm
walm
Correct answer: warm
Q2.
Pick the spelling that matches the sentence: She walked __________ the park.
toowords
towords
Correct answer: towards
towads
Q3.
Choose the 'or' spelling that matches the words.
Correct Answer:bought,ough

ough

Correct Answer:shore,ore

ore

Correct Answer:small,a

a

Q4.
Choose the correct spelling for the word in bold in the following sentence: I would like a smorl snack to eat.
smawl
smal
Correct answer: small
Q5.
Write the correct spelling for the word in bold in the following sentence: He thort he would go home.
Correct Answer: thought
Q6.
Write the correct spelling for the word in bold in the following sentence: I orlwaze drink water before going to bed.
Correct Answer: always

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