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New
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Year 2

New 'er' spellings, including 'or' and 'ear'

I can use two new spellings for the 'er' phoneme: 'or' and 'ear'.

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New
New
Year 2

New 'er' spellings, including 'or' and 'ear'

I can use two new spellings for the 'er' phoneme: 'or' and 'ear'.

Download all resources
Share activities with pupils

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. 'ear' is a representation of the 'er' phoneme that can ben found at the beginning or middle of a word.
  2. The 'or' representation of the 'er' phoneme is found after a 'w', such as 'word' and 'worm'.
  3. How to spell the common exception words: said and were.

Common misconception

The digraph 'or' and trigraph 'ear' also make different long vowel sounds.

Remind children that the same grapheme (digraph and trigraph) can represent different sounds. Say the words out loud to check.

Keywords

  • Digraph - two letters that represent one sound

  • Trigraph - three letters that represent one sound

Remind children that 'earth' is a homonym. It can be a noun and a proper noun depending on the meaning. Celebrate when children notice homonyms and homophones in lessons, as they are building up their word consciousness.
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.
Choose the words which contain the er sound.
Correct answer: burn
Correct answer: purse
hear
Correct answer: over
fire
Q2.
Choose the words which contain the er sound.
Correct answer: word
Correct answer: earth
Correct answer: twirl
fear
for
Q3.
Select the correct spelling to match the sentence. I __________ in England.
lif
liv
Correct answer: live
Q4.
Select the correct spelling to match the sentence. I have a pet __________ .
hamstu
Correct answer: hamster
haster
hamstir
Q5.
Select the correct spelling to match the sentence. I put the __________ in the post box.
lettuh
leter
Correct answer: letter
Q6.
Select the correct spelling to match the sentence. My hamster has brown __________ .
Correct answer: fur
fir
fer

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Choose the correct spelling to complete the sentence. They __________ happy to see us .
where
Correct answer: were
wer
Q2.
Select the words which contain a spelling for the 'er' sound.
Correct answer: worm
Correct answer: earn
Correct answer: work
Correct answer: twirl
each
Q3.
Match the grapheme that makes the 'er' sound to where they commonly appear in a word.
Correct Answer:ir,often in the middle of a word

often in the middle of a word

Correct Answer:er,often at the end of a word

often at the end of a word

Correct Answer:ear,often at the beginning or middle of a word

often at the beginning or middle of a word

Correct Answer:or,often in the middle of a word after a 'w'

often in the middle of a word after a 'w'

Q4.
Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence. I saw a wurm in the grass.
Correct Answer: worm
Q5.
Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence. Please help me to serch for my pen.
Correct Answer: search
Q6.
Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence. Now we must get to wirk.
Correct Answer: work