Spelling

27 January 2017

Homophones

This year, we’ve already had a two-week spelling focus on ‘homophones’ (words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings). However, because homophones can be really confusing we’ll be practising (or should it be practicing?) these words again. Also, as a class, we often choose the wrong homophone in our writing.

For this week’s spelling activity, children should choose three homophones. They could choose homophones that they know they often get wrong, ones they find tricky or words that we have not focussed on yet this year.

For each homophone they should do the following:

• Give a definition of each meaning.
• Use both words in a sentence.
• Practise spelling each one in two different ways (use the sheet in your book for inspiration)
• Come up with a method for remembering witch won is witch which one is which that might help someone else remember.

They should use the spelling page of their (or there?) homework book to record their (or they’re?) practice.

*Disclaimer: any incorrect uses of homophones throughout this post are intentional.

20 January 2017

The spellings this week are also contracted words. There are four new ones:

• I am – I’m
• I have – I’ve
• I will – I’ll
• I would – I’d

The children will be tested on these new ones and four from last week’s list.

20 January 2017

We are learning the ‘sub’ and ‘tele’ prefixes. Learn the following spellings and their definitions. Can you child use them in a sentence? Learn the following spellings for a test in two weeks – Friday 03 February.

20 January 2017

20 January 2017

This week’s spellings all end in ‘tial and ‘cial. They’re not difficult spellings but we need to know when to start this ‘chul’ sound with ‘t’ and when to start it with ‘c’.

Usually, where the part of the word preceding ‘chul’ ends with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), we use C-I-A-L. However, there are a couple of exceptions to this: commercial and financial.

If the part of the word preceding ‘chul’ ends with a consonant, we use T-I-A-L. I can think of one exception: initial.

These words will be tested on Friday 27 January.

13 January 2017

13 January 2016

For the next two weeks, we will focus on the ‘ably’ and ‘ibly’ word endings. To help them learn when to use the correct ending, children should complete the following activity by Thursday 20 January.

Earlier in the year, we learnt about the able and ible word endings and identified some rules and conventions to help us spell these words correctly. Children should reflect on this learning and investigate the following questions:

• True or false…all words that end in ‘able’ can be changed to end in ‘ably’?
• True or false…all words that end in ‘ible’ can be changed to end in ‘ibly’?
• Can you spot a pattern, rule or convention when changing words to end in ‘ably’ or ‘ibly’?
• Is it always, sometimes or never true that words ending in ‘ably’ or ‘ibly’ are adverbs? Prove it.

13 January 2017

Spelling worksheet due in Thursday 19 January 2017.

This week, to help with spelling, children have been given a worksheet concentrating on the ‘ness’ and ‘ful’ suffixes. Your child will have a spelling test on Friday 20 January based on the spellings they learned last week for homework.

13 January 2017

All week, we’ve been going through the Year 5/6 spelling list identifying which words we think we already know.

For this week’s spelling activity, the children should practise those spellings they already know by writing them into sentences as well as identifying ten words which they feel they’ll struggle to remember.

There won’t be a test on Friday; instead we’ll discuss the words we’ve identified as trickier and create a spelling list for us to learn the following week.

06 January 2017