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  • Story
  • Countdown, Year 3
  • Issue 6, 2022

Minty

    Learning resource

    Outcomes

    Learning Intention:

    I am learning more complex letter patterns so that I can apply them to my spelling.

    Success Criteria:

    • I can identify some consonant blends of more complex letter patterns
    • I can identify some consonant digraphs and trigraphs of more complex letter patterns
    • I can identify five different ways to read and spell ‘gh’

    Choose a way to create a treasure box for each student:

    - downloading an outline template such as the Printable Treasure Chest from Coolest Free Printables

    - downloading a cut-and-fold template of either a treasure chest or a rectangular prism such as the Gift Box from Printablee

    - printing 3D treasure boxes

    Prepare a way for students to write their treasure words to fill their boxes. For example, they can have a pile of printable coins.

    After reading the story as a class, read aloud the following poem:

    Seven treasures you must find

    Some are groups, some one-of-a-kind

    A special treasure is five of gold

    A new task ahead, so keep them on hold

    Explain that students will be treasure hunters by investigating the text to find the following treasures:

    1. At least five words with ‘ck’ (five red coins)
    2. A word with ‘tch’ (one blue coin)
    3. A word with ‘ph’ (one green coin)
    4. A word with ‘shr’ (one purple coin)
    5. A pair of words that pronounce ‘ch’ differently (two brown coins)
    6. At least three words with ‘str’ (one orange coin)
    7. Two words with ‘squ’ (one pink coin)

    Special number 8: Five words with ‘gh’ (five gold coins)

    Answers:

    Words with ck: kicked, back, suck, sucked, backpack, snickering, bricks, block, backyard, lucky, kicking, luckily

    Word with tch: twitch

    Word with ph: elephant

    Word with shr: shrugged

    Words that pronounce ch differently: school (paired with one of the following: screeched, bunched, children, teachers, chased, achoo)

    Words with str: street, strangely, straw, instructions, strange

    Words with squ: square, squinted

    Words with gh: laughing, right, spaghetti, through, though

    Students write their treasure words on the template coins, colouring in the words as instructed above. They can either glue their words into the treasure chest if it’s a printable template, or pop them into the chest if they’ve made a box. Ensure they don’t stick in their gold coins yet.

    For the gold coin words (laughing, right, spaghetti, through, though), go through each one as a class and ask how the ‘gh’ is used in the word. Write the answers on the board.

    Answers:

    Laughing – the digraph gh makes a ‘f’ sound

    Right – part of the trigraph ‘igh’

    Spaghetti – the digraph gh makes a hard ‘g’ sound

    Through – the quadgraph ‘ough’ makes an ‘oo’ as in ‘moon’ sound

    Though – the quadgraph ‘ough’ makes an ‘o’ as in ‘blow’ sound

    Students stick the gold coin words around the outside of their treasure box and copy from the board how the ‘gh’ is used next to each word.

    Once students have evaluated the five ‘gh’ words, watch the comprehensive YouTube video 7 Different Ways to Say OUGH.

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