icon-background-square
New
New
Year 2

Applying the spellings 'or', 'oor', 'au' and 'aw' in familiar words

I can spell words containing four representations of the ‘or’ phoneme: 'or', 'oor', 'au' and 'aw'.

icon-background-square
New
New
Year 2

Applying the spellings 'or', 'oor', 'au' and 'aw' in familiar words

I can spell words containing four representations of the ‘or’ phoneme: 'or', 'oor', 'au' and 'aw'.

warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. ‘aw’ is a representation of the 'or' phoneme that often comes at the end of a word and sometimes in the middle.
  2. ‘oor’ is a representation of the 'or' phoneme that sometimes comes at the end of a word.
  3. The proper noun 'August' is spelt using a capital letter.
  4. How to spell the common exception words: busy, sure and sugar.

Keywords

  • Digraph - two letters that represent one sound

  • Trigraph - three letters that represent one sound

  • Proper noun - a naming word that does need capitalisation

  • Word family - a group of words common in feature, pattern or meaning

Common misconception

Autumn can also be assumed to have a capital letter, as the name of a season.

Explain that convention is generally not to capitalise the names of the seasons.


To help you plan your year 2 english lesson on: Applying the spellings 'or', 'oor', 'au' and 'aw' in familiar words, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Ensure the children know the meaning of unfamiliar words that you explore in the lesson.
speech-bubble
Teacher tip
copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

Loading...

6 Questions

Q1.
Pick the spelling that matches the sentence. He sent a letter to his mother, __________ Ali.
misus
Correct answer: Mrs
Msr
msrs
Q2.
Select the proper noun from the list.
launch pad
author
Correct answer: August
sauce
Q3.
Choose the 'or' spellings that match the words.
Correct Answer:sort,or
tick

or

Correct Answer:paw,aw
tick

aw

Correct Answer:pause,au
tick

au

Correct Answer:door,oor
tick

oor

Q4.
Which of these are the common spellings of the or sound?
Correct answer: au
Correct answer: oor
Correct answer: aw
oe
ai
Q5.
Correct the spelling in bold in the following sentence: I like to have tomato sorce on my pasta.
sors
Correct answer: sauce
saus
soorce
Q6.
Where does the 'oor' spelling generally go in a word?
Correct answer: at the end
at the beginning
in the middle

6 Questions

Q1.
Pick the spelling that matches the sentence: The teacher was very __________ that day.
busee
bizy
Correct answer: busy
bizee
bisy
Q2.
Pick the spelling that matches the sentence: Are you __________ you don't need a coat?
shoor
shure
Correct answer: sure
sher
ser
Q3.
Choose the 'or' spellings that match the words.
Correct Answer:important,or
tick

or

Correct Answer:author,au
tick

au

Correct Answer:outdoors,oor
tick

oor

Correct Answer:sawdust,aw
tick

aw

Q4.
Choose the correct spelling for the world in bold in the following sentence: The season after summer is ortum.
autum
ortum
Correct answer: autumn
Q5.
Correct the spelling in bold in the following sentence: I wake up at seven in the moornig each day.
murning
mawning
Correct answer: morning
mornig
Q6.
Correct the spelling in bold in the following sentence: The orther of the book was Roald Dahl.
Correct Answer: author

Additional material

Download additional material