Happy

posted in: Spelling | 0

We currently think of the word happy as meaning “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment”. However, originally it meant ‘lucky or unforeseen’. It came from the root word ‘hap’ meaning ‘by chance’ plus the suffix ‘y’ and of course you … Continued

Publishing Ideas

posted in: Spelling | 0

Writing for an audience provides students with a purpose for writing and an incentive for rewriting and editing to a high standard. Here are some easy ideas to implement which are a little different: Create a bookmark: Poems, summaries and … Continued

Pre-Reading Activities

posted in: Reading | 0

This is the second of my “Back in the old days when I first started teaching” posts. As I mentioned in my previous post,  Year 1 was the first year of formal learning and there were three terms each year.  … Continued

Pre-Writing Activities

posted in: Writing | 0

Back in the ‘old days’ when I first started teaching, Year 1 was the first year of formal learning and there were three terms each year.  In Year 1, students spent the first term participating in pre-reading, pre-writing and pre-maths … Continued

Busy and Bury

posted in: Categories | 0

Why is the ‘u’ in ‘busy’ pronounced as /i/ and in ‘bury’ pronounced as /e/? It relates to the fact that how we pronounce words can be different in different dialects of English and that the pronunciation of words often … Continued