Teacher Tips

How to spell words with ie or ei:

When the sound is ee

it’s i before e

except after c

For example, ‘believe’ has the sound ‘ee‘ so its i before e. ‘Receive’ has the sound ee but it is after a c, so it is e before i. Words like ‘weight’and ‘height’ don’t make the sound ee, so the rule doesn’t apply.

Subtractions can be tricky so here is a little poem and help them understand.

Here is a helpful trick that your children can use to help them learn their 9 times tables.

The letter “C” can be tricky when your child is learning to read, but here is an easy tip to help them figure out what sound it is making.

Letter ‘c’ followed by ‘i’, ‘e’ or ‘y’ makes the sound ‘s’.

Try it out. Here are a few to get you started:

city, concentric, bicycle.

Use this strategy for two digit numbers only. Multiply 11 by 18. Write down 1 and 8 with space between them

Add 8 and the 1 and put that number in the middle: 198

Note: If the sum of the digits is more than 9, you will have to “carry the one”, so for the product 11 x 67 we have…

After hearing about Kip McGrath through friends and on TV we decided to try it. We were amazed with our son’s progress, within 1 year he had gone from the bottom of his class to the top of his class, and his confidence soared.

A good way to memorise a fact is to make up a fun saying.

For example, to remember that the word ‘mean’ is the same as finding the average of scores, we teach this saying:

‘Mean people are very average.

A quick an easy tip to help your child learn to spell. Plus it’s fun too.

Write each word first in pencil.

Then trace over each word five times.

Each time you trace you use a DIFFERENT colour.