This week, we are looking at unstressed vowels in polysyllabic words.

Unstressed vowels are vowel letters that are not easy to hear within a word.

Polysyllabic words have more than one syllable.

When a polysyllabic word has unstressed vowels within it, it can often be difficult to spell as you can’t rely on

‘sounding out’ the spelling.

For example: In the word ‘library’, the ‘a’ is unstressed and we usually pronounce the word ‘li-bry’.

Look at your spelling words for this week. Can you work out what some of the words have in common and why people

might have difficulty in spelling them?

dictionarydefinite

Wednesdaydesperate

familiarliterate

originalsecretary

animalstationary

unstressed ‘a’ in ‘ate’

unstressed ‘a’ in ‘ar’

unstressed ‘a’ in ‘al’ unstressed ‘e’

unstressed ‘i’ in ‘ite’

Look at how some of the words contain the same letter patterns...

dictionarydefinite Wednesday desperatefamiliar

literate originalsecretary animal stationary

dictionarydefinite Wednesday desperatefamiliar

literate originalsecretary animal stationary

Spin

Let’s spin the spinner! Now, work with your

partner to write a sentence that contains the polysyllabic word on your whiteboards.

Could your sentence begin with a fronted

adverbial?

Choose a word from the spinner.

Write a sentence that contains the

polysyllabic word you have chosen.

Spin

Let’s spin the spinner! Now, work with your

partner to write a sentence that contains the polysyllabic word on your whiteboards.

Could your sentence contain an expanded

noun phrase?

Choose a word from the spinner.

Write a sentence that contains the

polysyllabic word you have chosen.

Spin

Let’s spin the spinner! Now, work with your

partner to write a sentence that contains the polysyllabic word on your whiteboards.

Could your sentence begin with a

subordinate clause?

Choose a word from the spinner.

Write a sentence that contains the

polysyllabic word you have chosen.

Spin

Let’s spin the spinner! Now, work with your

partner to write a sentence that contains the polysyllabic word on your whiteboards.

Could your sentence be written in the past

progressive tense?

Choose a word from the spinner.

Write a sentence that contains the

polysyllabic word you have chosen.

Here are your spelling words for this week.Practise these tricky polysyllabic words carefully.