Silent Initial Letters Presentation

The educational resource titled "Y5/6 Silent Initial Letters" is designed to teach Year 5 and 6 students the intricacies of spelling words with silent initial letters. The learning objective (LO) of the presentation is to enable students to accurately spell words where the initial letter is not pronounced. The PowerPoint presentation, created by KS2Gems in 2020, provides a comprehensive guide for teachers on how to introduce, consolidate, and revise the spelling of these words. Instructions suggest the resource can be adapted to various teaching methods, whether for individual, paired, or group work, and allows for activities to be completed using whiteboards or in exercise books, depending on the needs of the class.

The content of the presentation includes a list of words with silent initial letters, such as 'gnarled', 'honour', and 'wreck', among others, categorised into two groups for ease of learning. It explains the spelling rules for these words, followed by interactive class activities that encourage the use of whiteboards. The presentation also contains slides detailing the etymology of silent letters, with examples from Old English, French, and Greek origins, highlighting letters such as 'g', 'h', 'k', 'm', 'p', and 'w'. Additionally, the resource provides sentence completion exercises with answers, and challenges students to write sentences and paragraphs using the words, emphasising the importance of checking word meanings in a dictionary to ensure comprehension and correct usage.