Teaching Ideas for Using Planetary Plurals - A spelling game that teaches adding plural suffixes to words

Make choices about how to change a base word to make it into a plural.

Phonics Learning Opportunities

To know the rules for making singular words into plurals.

To apply the rules for making singular words plural.

Organisation

Whole class, small group, 1:1 or independently

Teaching ideas

It will be helpful if children are already familiar with the rules for making words plural before they start playing this game. Playing Pond Life Plurals is a good way to achieve this.

Playing with a group of children - children will need whiteboards either one each or in pairs.

As the UFO flies away, it will reveal a base word. Encourage children to read the word in their heads first. Read the word out loud as a group. Check that all children know what the word means. Explain that this is the word for one of those things. What would the word be if there were more than one of those things. Enourage children to say the word out loud.

Ask all children to write the word on their whiteboards. Encourage the children to confer, discuss and explain why they have made the choices of letters that they have made.

Ask the children to show their whiteboards to you. Type into the computer the most popular spelling and click on enter. Encourage all children to look carefully at the feedback screen and mark the spelling in their whiteboard - 1 tick for each correct letter. Praise every letter that children have got right.

Reinforce the rule that was applied in this instance.

Most words - add s

Words ending in a hissing, buzzing and shushing sound - add es

Words ending in f or fe (but not ff) - change the f to a v and add es

Words ending in y - change the y to an i and add es

Extensions

Encourage children to play the game independently to reinforce their skills. You could build in an element of challenge - who can get the highest score.

As children become more familiar with the spelling of these words give them lots of opportunities for using them in their own writing. Encourage them to practise writing them in handwriting and race on whiteboards to see how many times they can correctly spell one of the words on a whiteboard in one minute.

Play Interactive Planetary Plurals Game