Applying the rule ‘i before e except after c’
I can spell words and exceptions using ‘ie’ or ‘ei’ to make the ‘ee’ sound.
Applying the rule ‘i before e except after c’
I can spell words and exceptions using ‘ie’ or ‘ei’ to make the ‘ee’ sound.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- There are many ways to spell the ‘ee’ sound, including ‘ee’, ‘ea’, ‘e-e’, ‘e’, ‘y’, ‘ey’, ‘ie’ and ‘ei’.
- The rule ‘i before e except after c’ can help choose between ‘ie’ and ‘ei’ when spelling ‘ee’.
- There are exceptions, including ‘protein’, ‘caffeine’, ‘either’ and ‘seize’.
- It is important to practise to help us learn new spellings.
- How to spell the curriculum words: rhyme, rhythm and remember.
Keywords
Phoneme - the smallest unit of sound that can change a word's meaning
Grapheme - the letter or group of letters that represent a sound (the spelling)
Exception - a case or situation that does not follow the usual or expected rule or pattern
Common misconception
Children may choose the wrong spelling strategy to practise a particular word.
Help pupils to make informed choices about which spelling strategy is best to learn particular types of words. For example, 'naughty letters' is useful to learn those with unusual spelling patterns. Pupils will also develop their own favourites.
To help you plan your year 5 english lesson on: Applying the rule ‘i before e except after c’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 5 english lesson on: Applying the rule ‘i before e except after c’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 english lessons from the Noun suffixes, letter strings and homophones unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Licence
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
sleep
thief
each
funny
'i before e' words
'except after c' words
exception to the rule words
Exit quiz
6 Questions
'i before e' words
'except after c' words
exception to the rule words