New
New
Year 6

Recognising the different sounds made by the letter strings "ou", "ear" and "ice"

I can recognise when words might be spelt with the letter strings 'ou', 'ear' and 'ice'.

New
New
Year 6

Recognising the different sounds made by the letter strings "ou", "ear" and "ice"

I can recognise when words might be spelt with the letter strings 'ou', 'ear' and 'ice'.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. The 'ou' spelling can make the sounds 'or', 'u', 'ow' and 'oo'.
  2. The 'ear' spelling can make the sounds 'ear', 'air', 'ar' and 'er'.
  3. The 'ice' spelling can make the sounds 'ice' and 'iss'.
  4. When you hear one of these sounds, the word might contain the 'ou', 'ear' or 'ice' spelling.
  5. How to spell the curriculum words: forty, rhythm and criticise.

Keywords

  • Letter string - a group of letters that are written together in a word

  • Phoneme - the smallest unit of sound that can change a word's meaning

  • Digraph - two letters that represent one sound

Common misconception

Spellings such as 'practice', 'advice' and 'device' can be more difficult for children.

Explore words ending in -ice and words ending in -ise. Listen to the difference in pronunciation of these words and discuss the difference in word class too e.g. practice, advice, device = nouns, practise, advise, devise = verbs.

Think carefully about the accent of your pupils as you may have to amend the slides. For example, for some accents, the 'ou' in 'could' and 'trouble' make the same sound.
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).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Identify the spellings that contain the 'ou' sound.
Correct answer: cloud
show
Correct answer: plough
bowl
Correct answer: cow
Q2.
Match the 'ear' spellings to the correct words.
Correct Answer:beard,ear

ear

Correct Answer:pier,ier

ier

Correct Answer:beer,eer

eer

Correct Answer:here,ere

ere

Q3.
Select the words that contain the /iss/ sound.
fish
Correct answer: crystal
Correct answer: malice
mission
Correct answer: hiss
Q4.
Choose the correct spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'The paper had a tair in it because it was ripped.'
tare
tere
Correct answer: tear
teer
Q5.
Choose the correct spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'Somewhere in the darkness, I heard the soft hoot of a barn aul.'
oul
houl
owel
Correct answer: owl
Q6.
Choose the correct spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'The captain allowed me to stear the ship.'
steir
Correct answer: steer
stere
steere

6 Questions

Q1.
Identify the words containing the 'ear' letter string.
pierce
Correct answer: clear
Correct answer: heard
real
clean
Q2.
Match the words to the sound that the ‘ou’ letter string is making.
Correct Answer:soul,o

o

Correct Answer:soup,oo like in 'food'

oo like in 'food'

Correct Answer:couple,u

u

Correct Answer:out,ow

ow

Q3.
Match the words to the sound that the ‘ice’ letter string is making.
Correct Answer:chalice,iss

iss

Correct Answer:twice,ice

ice

Correct Answer:police,ees

ees

Q4.
Choose the correct spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'The weather outside is dreerey.'
drerey
driery
dreery
Correct answer: dreary
Q5.
Choose the correct spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'This Sunday, I will go to a survis in my local church.'
serviss
Correct answer: service
survice
servees
Q6.
Choose the correct spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'This Sunday, I will hike up the mountin.'
mownten
mountan
moughntain
Correct answer: mountain

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