This week, the children need to learn five tricky words and the remaining days of the week. Every day, we rehearse the spellings for the week and put them into full sentences. Try this at home.
- could
- would
- should
- who
- where
- Saturday
- Sunday
Phase 5 tricky words: Year 1
Information for parents and carers
‘Tricky words’ are words that cannot easily be decoded (‘sounded out’ and read). This is because some of the sounds in the words are spelled in an unusual way. It is important for children to be able to read these words as they are among the most common words in English.
Below, is a table that shows the tricky words that your child have been learning in Phase 5 in Year 1 and explains why each word is tricky.
Children will practise the tricky words in school until they can read them automatically. They will also practise reading the tricky words in the decodable books that they bring home.
Taught in Year 1
Tricky word Tricky part Why is it tricky?
their eir The ‘eir’ makes the sound air.
people eo The ‘eo’ makes the sound ee.
oh oh The ‘oh’ makes the sound oa.
your our The our makes the sound or.
could
would
should oul Your child has not yet learned the trigraph ‘oul’, which makes the sound oo (as in ‘book’).
our our The trigraph ‘our’ makes the sound ow followed by the schwa sound.
house
mouse se Your child has not yet learned the digraph ‘se’. Here, it makes the sound s.
water a The ‘a’ makes the sound or. Learning so far: For ‘a’, your child has learned the sound a as in ‘cat’.
want a The ‘a’ makes the sound o. Learning so far: For ‘a’, your child has learned the sound a as in ‘cat’.