Teaching exception words
Aim: Learn common exception words by focusing on the tricky part.
How to explain it
Some very common words don't follow the rules children have learned, or use a rule they haven't met yet. Teach them as whole words, but still point out the one tricky part: said is regular except for 'ai', friend has an extra i. That turns a 'learn it by heart' word into one small thing to remember.
Starter (5 minutes)
Write 'said'. Ask which letters do what they should. Which letters are the tricky bit? Draw a heart over them to show they must be learned by heart.
Main activity
Heart words: children write each exception word and draw a small heart over the tricky part. Practise with look, say, cover, write, check, saying the tricky part out loud before writing it.
Dictation sentences
- My friend said the people could come.
- The busy bees were in the garden.
- One girl laughed until her eyes watered.
Watch out for
- Spelling the word by its sounds (sed, frend, bizzy).
Quick check
Ask children to spell these without help:
- once
- laugh
- eye
- whole
Example words
- the
- said
- was
- one
- friend
- because
- people
- could
- laugh
- busy
- eye
- February