More year 3/4 spelling patterns The new statutory requirements are quite specific about the spelling rules to be taught in each year group. One particular pattern for Years 3 and 4 is using ‘ch’ for the ‘k’ sound. There are quite a number of words that follow this pattern, from common words such as school and echo to less familiar ones such as chameleon and chlorine. Children often ask why we have these different spelling rules and in this case it seems that most of the words with the /k/ pronunciation of ‘ch’ originate in Greek words which use chi. We have just published two sets of worksheets, looking at a total of 18 words, that follow this pattern. These can be found in our English worksheets, Middle and Upper Spelling, General Rules. We have also just published two more sets of worksheets on word endings for Years 3 and 4. The first of these takes another look at words ending in ‘tion’ and ‘sion’ with some quite tricky words such as permission and comprehension. Also there are some hard spellings in our ‘ous’ word endings pages, including courageous and spontaneous. For children to be confident with spelling these kinds of words it is important that they come across them a number of times, orally, in worksheets and in their own writing. Go to ch used for the /k/ sound Go to Word Endings for middle/upper primary