Year 4 · SPaG · Word families, prefixes and suffixes
Year 4 endings -ation, -sion, -ssion, -tion and -cian worksheet and PowerPoint
To spell words that end in -ation, -tion, -sion, -ssion and -cian, and to tell them apart.
The shun sound
Many words end with the sound shun, spelt in different ways. -tion is the most common (station, fiction). -sion (television, decision) and -ssion (mission, discussion) come next. -cian is for people with a skill (musician, magician, electrician).
| -ation | information, station |
|---|---|
| -tion | fiction, motion |
| -sion | television, decision |
| -ssion | mission, discussion |
| -cian | musician, magician |
Examples
- The musician gave a performance.
- We watched television at the station.
Key words
- -tion
- as in fiction
- -sion
- as in television
- -ssion
- as in mission
- -cian
- a person with a skill, as in magician
What is on the worksheet
Every sheet for this lesson has a short teaching box and 12 questions that get gradually harder: 8 fluency questions, then 4 reasoning questions that ask pupils to explain or choose. A writing challenge follows. The questions use the same styles as the key stage 2 grammar and punctuation test (circle, underline, tick, fill the gap, add punctuation, rewrite, explain). They are written for this website, not copied from past papers.
All the answers are on the last page of the same editable Word file. New questions are made every time, so you can print a different sheet for every group or for homework. The same sheet code always gives the same sheet.
Writing challenge: Write ten words that end with the sound shun. Sort them by their ending and write a sentence for three of them.
Pupil target: I can spell words that end with the sound shun.
The PowerPoint
A 20-slide lesson deck for the same lesson: a starter that revisits earlier learning, key words, an I do and a You do question on each slide with a countdown timer, answers that appear one click at a time, and a challenge. Download the endings -ation, -sion, -ssion, -tion and -cian PowerPoint.
Where this lesson fits
This is lesson 58 of 60 in the Year 4 SPaG scheme, in the block “Word families, prefixes and suffixes”.
Other lessons in this block
- Word families
- Prefixes dis-, mis- and re-
- Prefixes in-, il-, im- and ir-
- Words ending -sure, -ture and -cher
- Using suffixes
- Root words together
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