Learning how a silent “e” makes a vowel say its name is the first big step after children know the most common sound of each letter.
Make sure that they are very secure with the sound of each single letter, and that they can make and read simple 3 and 4 letter words using them, before going on to teach them silent “e”.
E.g. “man” – add a silent “e” to get “mane”, kit/kite, slop/slope, cut/cute …
Check out the videos below to see some examples. “u_e” has two possible sounds.
Nowadays, we often think of “a_e” as a unit with the sound /A/. Some children will be confused by the idea of silent letters and interpret other letters as silent when they are not.
Click on the bottom right had corner of each video to see it full screen.
Use letter cards to make 3-letter words, then add an “e” to the end. What does it say now?
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