The 'er' spellings, including 'er', 'ir' and 'ur'
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can read and spell words containing the three most common representations of the ‘er’ phoneme: 'er', 'ir' and 'ur'.
Key learning points
- er', 'ir' and 'ur' are common representations of the 'er' phoneme.
- How to spell the common exception words: some and come.
- A mnemonic can help us to remember tricky spellings.
Keywords
Digraph - two letters that represent one sound
Mnemonic - a word, short poem, or sentence that can help you remember things such as spelling rules
Common misconception
Pupils can think spelling generalisations are always true e.g. 'er' found at the end.
Careful with wording. Say 'ir' and 'ur' are 'often' not 'always' found in the middle. Show a familiar exception to the rule if necessary.
Teacher tip
You can generate stories to help group words with similar spellings, to support memorisation. The girl wore a skirt and shirt. She liked to whirl and twirl and came first in a race.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of these are a proper noun?
Q2.Match each word to the number of phonemes it contains.
4
2
3
Q3.Choose two more spellings that can also represent the sound 'er', like in never.
Q4.Choose the word that rhymes with bird.
Q5.Choose the word that rhymes with 'dirt'.
Q6.Which of these words have two syllables?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Pick the spelling that matches the sentence. Please __________ here.
Q2.Choose the 'er' spellings that match to the words.
ir
er
ur
Q3.Match the grapheme to where they commonly appear in a word.
the end
the middle
Q4.Correct the spelling in bold in the following sentence. She came thurd in the race.
Q5.Correct the spelling in bold in the following sentence. The cat ran after the berd.
Q6.Correct the spelling in bold in the following sentence. The children went to visit the cherch.
To help you plan your 2 English lesson on: The 'er' spellings, including 'er', 'ir' and 'ur', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 2 English lesson on: The 'er' spellings, including 'er', 'ir' and 'ur', 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 1 English lessons from the Alternative GPCs for long vowels unit, dive into the full primary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.