A "spelling trick" refers to a simple, often clever technique or mnemonic that helps in correctly spelling a tricky or commonly misspelled word.- Free Lessons

Activities (Lessons)

Level one – Phonics

Level three – Becoming a word detective

Level four – Basic Grammar

Level five – Spelling Mastery

Level Seven – Pronunciation

Level Eight – Complete course

Teacher Phonic Toolkit

Sound Dictionary

Level Six – Essay Ready

Ending sounds /e/ or /i/

Welcome to Level Two! Here, we’ll teach you 10 easy tricks to tackle common spelling challenges. These tricks will help you spell hundreds of words. For example, we'll decide if "kettle" starts with a "k" like "kitten" or a "c" like "cat." And what about "clown"? Should it be a "k" (kitten) or a "c" (cat)? You’ll also discover why "g" can sound different in words like "gym" and "giant," where it might seem like they should be spelled "jym" and "jiant." We’ll become word detectives and learn fun ways to master these spellings. Each trick has a catchy name, like "Double Letters and Swimming Pool Words", making them easy to remember.

This activity focuses on ending sounds like /e/ or /i/, as in "fly" or "money."

In earlier activities, we taught you how to understand sounds and sound out words by Talking to Your Pencil. Now, get ready to take those skills to the next level! We'll use Talking to Your Pencil to spot the tricky parts in words.

Icon

Description automatically generated awesome is pronounced
aw-suhm (means, wonderful, perfect)

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Description automatically generated double is pronounced
duhb-uhl (means two of)

No need to rush, yo! Chill, and do one activity a day. Trust me, this way of learning is a blast!

This first one is for the tricky end-word sound as e or i. So start off by watching this video.

1. Go to the Activity 6 pages of your Decoding Book. Rule a margin on the right-hand side.

Child image Mosquito

2. Draw the above picture in your book.

3. Say bab-ee. What is the ending sound?

Good, that's right. You didn't use e that time. What did you use?
Shut your eyes, listen; bab-ee - What do you hear?

Let's try some more words:

4. Which spelling is correct?

5. In the margin, write what sound you hear last, an /e/ sound. Draw a circle around it, locking it into place.

6. Now, write the word that means 'to think of something in the past', which begins m?mor?. Talk to your pencil and write the word.

Did you write memoree or memory?

7. Ah, look in the margin - e is already locked up, so you can't use e.

Icon margin is pronounced
maa-jn

8. Do you join the navy or do you join the navee?

Good, that's right. You didn't use e that time. What did you use?

Let's try some more words:

9. Do you play rugby or do you play rugbee?

10. Is he handy or hande?

11. Do you walk Slowlee or Slowly?

12. Is your piggybank Empty or Emptee?

13. What about the other image above? Such as for that bothersome insect, is it a fli or fly?

THE PATTERN (write it down in your Decoding Book)

This activity is all about tricky /e/ and /i/ sounds. But they are only tricky when at the end of a word.

Say the following to yourself as if a poem: hearing the sound at the end of word /e/, or /i/, you mostly use the letter y, or cry.

Another reason to Talk to your pencil is to help you listen to the sound at the end of the word, to hear if it is an e or i sound.
If you see a word you do not know, and it has a y at the end, it is usually pronounced with an e or i sound at the end, not a y sound.

But there are a few exceptions to the rule.

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