Year 4 · Spelling patterns
Tricky words worth learning by heart
Spell words that are often misspelt from the Year 3 and 4 word list
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Spell words that are often misspelt from the Year 3 and 4 word list
Key learning points
- • The awkward crowd
- • Look, say, cover, write, check
- • Memory tricks
- • Word families help
This lesson at a glance
- 20 minutes
- 19 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- No marked quiz yet
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 19
Watch first
Tricky words worth learning by heart
Add a little piece to the front of a word and watch its meaning change.
In a nutshell
Spell words that are often misspelt from the Year 3 and 4 word list
What you already know
Part 2 of 19
Before we start
What you already know
You can spell most words by sounding them out and know the days of the week.
Key words
Part 3 of 19
Key words
Words you'll need today
- word list
- The set of Year 3 and 4 words everyone is expected to spell.
- mnemonic
- A memory trick, like 'big elephants can always understand small elephants' for because.
- syllable
- A beat in a word: Feb-ru-ar-y has four.
Learning cycle
Part 4 of 19
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 — Why some words trip you up
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 19
Learn
The awkward crowd
Words like because, business, February, separate, different, favourite, believe, February, height and knowledge are misspelt more than almost any others, because a letter is silent or an unexpected vowel hides in the middle. Sounding out gives you 'seperate' instead of separate, or 'Febuary' instead of February. These words have to be learnt, not worked out.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 19
Learn
Look, say, cover, write, check
This is the method that actually works. Look at the word and notice the tricky bit. Say it out loud, stretching the hidden part: sep-A-rate, Feb-RU-ary. Cover it. Write it from memory. Check letter by letter. If it is wrong, fix only that part and go again. Three quick goes beats copying it out twenty times.
Quick check
Part 7 of 19
Quick check
Which spelling is correct?
Quick check
Part 8 of 19
Quick check
What is the middle step of look, say, cover, write, check?
Reset break
Part 9 of 19
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 10 of 19
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 — Tricks that stick
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 19
Learn
Memory tricks
A mnemonic uses a silly sentence you cannot forget: 'big elephants can always understand small elephants' spells because. 'There's a rat in separate' fixes the middle vowel. 'Believe — never beLIEve a lie' catches the lie in the middle. Make your own for the words that beat you; the sillier it is, the better it sticks.
Explore the idea
Part 12 of 19
Learn
Word families help
Learn one word and you often get others free. Know sign and you can see the silent g in signal and signature. Know two and you understand twice, twelve and twin. Know medicine and medical explains the c. Looking for the family turns a random spelling into something that makes sense.
Quick check
Part 13 of 19
Quick check
A mnemonic is…
Quick check
Part 14 of 19
Quick check
Knowing 'sign' helps you spell…
Common mix-ups
Part 15 of 19
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- Sounding out words that do not follow the rules, giving 'seperate' or 'Febuary'.
- Copying a word out many times without covering it, so you never test your memory.
- Learning a word once and never checking it again a week later.
Challenge round
Part 16 of 19
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 17 of 19
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
Write it from ____.
Mastery quiz
Part 18 of 19
No quiz for this one
This lesson has no marked quiz attached yet.
Lesson round-up
Part 19 of 19
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
The last bus
The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.
She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.
Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.
Original extract written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
- How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
- Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.
Reading response
ReadingRead the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.
2 paragraphs (PEE)
Extended writing
WritingWrite your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.
250–350 words
Reading log
ReadingNote the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.
20 minutes' reading
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover