4th-5th Grade Level 12 Sort It “ed” Spelling & Texts PDF

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Advanced
PHONICS

Fourth to Fifth Grade
The “ed” Ending

Split & Write It

The goal of this activity is not a spelling test. Rather, it is to practice
hearing and representing each individual sound in a word, as well
as to begin to notice when different spellings of a given sound are
used. It’s a process-based activity that can help your student tune
in more carefully to the inside parts of words.

DIRECTIONS: Dictate the following words to your student. She may write them below but the dry erase board is
preferred. Don’t let her look at these words! Also, ask her to say each chunk as she writes each and to leave a
space between chunks. After she writes each word, give her the clues she needs to be able to spell it correctly.
For instance, “Yes, this [“ee”] is a spelling of the /ee/ sound, but in “easily” we spell the /ee/ sound like this [write
“ea” on dry erase board].”

WORDS TO
DICTATE

transmitted unfamiliar countless eighty earthquake recreation apricot
complained invaded New Orleans jigsaw proceed exhausted chewier

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

Cut out the words below, read them,
and sort them by their ending sound.

The “ed” Ending

“Look at this ending: ed
Have you ever noticed that “ed” can have different sounds at the end of words? Can you guess what those are?”
“Read these words and listen for the ending sound of the “ed” spelling:”
raced
What sounds did you hear? If you said, /t/, /ed/ and /d/, then you are right!

✁

/d/
surfaced

crowded

announced

decided

founded

dried

interested

considered

covered

provided

supplied

tired

locked

surrounded

required

counted

allowed

directed

died

jumped

amounted

joked

pouted

hopped

saved

✁

After sorting by “ed” ending, you might want to try to sort by these vowel sounds:
/i_e/, /ow/, /er/, or other.
© 2019 Reading Simplified

✁

/ed/
cried

✁

listened

/t/
rounded

✁

stranded

The “ed” Ending
“Let’s continue learning about William Holtzclaw’s challenges in getting educated as a boy.”

What do you remember about his
autobiography from last time?”

Going to School Under
Difficulties, Part Two
Abridged from the original by William Holtzclaw

During the winter, sometimes I
had to go to school bare-footed
and always with little clothing.
Our landlady was very kind at these times. She
would give me clothes that had already been worn
by her sons. We made a kind of trade. I would bring
her broom straw from the sedges1. The straw was
what she used to make her brooms. That is how I
usually got enough clothes to keep warm.
However, I still went to school in bare feet. Often
the ground would be frozen and sometimes there
would be snow. My feet would crack and bleed. When
I reached home, Mother would have a tub full of hot
1

grass-like plant

continued…

water ready to thaw me out. Although this caused
my feet and legs to swell, it usually got me into
shape for school the next day.
Once, when I had helped “lay by”2 the crops at
home, I was ready to enter the little one-month
school3. But it was decided that I could not go
because I had no hat. Mother told me that if I
could catch a ‘coon4, she would make me a cap out
of that skin.
That night I went into the forest with my
2

harvest
length of school before a break for more farming
4
slang for “raccoon”
3

continued…

hounds and finally located
a ‘coon. But the ‘coon was
a mighty fighter and not
afraid of us. When he had
dri ven off all of my dogs, I
saw that the only chance for
me to get a cap was to whip
the ‘coon myself. Together, with the dogs, I went
at him and finally we beat him. The next week I
went to school wearing my new ‘coon-skin cap.
Exertions5 of this kind strengthened my will
and my body. They prepared me for greater
tests that were to come later. As I grew older,
it became harder for me to go to school. When
cotton first began to open, early in the fall, it
brought a higher price than at any other time of
the year. For that reason, the landlord wanted us
to stop school and pick. But Mother wanted me to
remain in school.

continued…

When the landlord came to the house early in the
morning to stir up the cotton pickers, she would hide
me behind ovens and pots and throw old rags over me.
Then she would slip me off to school the back way.
She was able to keep me out of sight of the great
farm house until we reached the point, a mile away
from home, where we came to the public road. There
my mother would bid me good-bye.
She would return to the farm and try to pick enough
cotton for both of us. This way I was able to continue
to go to school.

What does the author say about the hardships,
or difficulties, that he had to go through?
Why do you think his mother went
to so much trouble to send him to school?