Learning about the STRUCTURE of words

One of the important aspects of learning how to spell in English

 is understanding the elements of a word. 

English words have two main elements: the BASE and affixes (prefixes and suffixes).

We are learning that the spelling of a word comes from the base.

We used the word family of <move> to look more closely how these words are constructed.We built a matrix to show the important parts of the word. The base is written in the middle column and prefixes and suffixes are added to the right and left of the base.

We showed the different elements of a word by constructing a word sum.

re + move --> remove

As we write and spell aloud the word sum we are thinking carefully about each element.

We noticed that <move> needs a single, silent <e> in the final position because English bases do not finish with a single <v>...it has to be <ve>, like in <have> and <love>. 

That is an important English convention we need to learn.

move + ment --. movement

We noticed that in the word <movement> the single, silent <e> is retained but...

move/ + ing --> moving

...in the word <moving> the single, silent <e>is replaced by the suffix. We will investigate the reason why in a few weeks time. Mrs Lyn wants us to think about why this might happen!

When we construct the word sums we can clearly see what happens when there is a change to the base and helps us understand the spelling of the final word.

Did you know that spelling is a thinking activity? 
When we investigate words we remember the spelling more deeply because it makes sense!