• Welcome
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Learning Apps
  • Alphabet
  • Learn to Read
  • Phonics
  • Spelling
  • Struggling Readers
  • Comprehension
  • Writing with Kids
  • Free Printables

This Reading Mama

Reading and Spelling Words with Silent e (Free Printable Included)

By thisreadingmama 2 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my full disclosure policy.

Reading and Spelling Words with Silent e (free word sort included) | This Reading MamaWhen teaching reading and spelling, it is important to be explicit. By this, I mean that we stop, “pull out” words from the actual text and talk about them and the patterns within them. What group of letters works together to make a certain sound? Is there a “tricky” part to this word? How is this word like that word? What other words have this same pattern or group of letters? What can we learn from that to help us read and spell other words?

Being explicit means we don’t leave the learning up to “chance”. It’s all laid out there for the student to see and experience. This is a good practice for all students, but especially those that struggle with reading.

The Multiple Roles of Silent e

Take for example silent e. We typically start with silent e‘s “magical” role to change the vowel in the word to a long sound (such as can to cane). Developmentally speaking, this is where we should start with silent e.

But as kids grow in their reading, they will encounter many more words that place silent e in a different role. If we are not explicit about the silent e‘s role in words like have, chance, or angle, students are left to think that there are many exceptions to the magical e rule. I touched briefly on this topic in this older post but just recently, my 2nd grade son and I took a closer look at silent e.

Silent e Word Sort

ALuv is currently working through Level 3 of All About Reading {review coming in January}. I love how explicit All About Reading is about silent e‘s multiple roles. We have also been working through some word sorts from Words Their Way on the silent e‘s role as well.

To help him put it all together, I created a simple silent e word sort that contains the four most common roles of silent e for him to work through for a week. All About Reading introduces more roles, but I just picked the four most common for the texts he’s reading right now. (I have permission from All About Reading to share my free printable with you.)

Silent e Word Sort | This Reading MamaI printed off the silent e sort (the FREE download link is at the end of this post) and he cut it apart. We placed the headers at the top: Soft C/G, Long Vowel, Vowel in Syllable, and After the V. He read through each word (with my support) and then on the first day, he sorted the words under the role that the silent e played: either soft c/g, long vowel, vowel in syllable, or after the v. We talked about any words that seemed tricky and word meanings, if necessary. If you would like to see how exactly I introduce a word sort, click here.

Silent e Word Hunt

All week long, he resorted the words and did different activities with it, like the ones you see in this post. On Day 4, he went on a word hunt through text to find words with silent e. Word hunts are some of my favorite activities to do when learning to spell words by their patterns or phonics features. I just love how it connects the spelling pattern to real reading.

Silent e Word Hunt Activity | This Reading MamaIn his word notebook, a notebook we keep for his spelling (phonics patterns and sight words), I jotted down a quick chart. As he read through some of the books in his independent reading bin, he looked for words with silent e and wrote them down under the category in which they belonged. Notice that I included an Other category, as we did not cover all the roles of silent e in this sort.

 

To download the Silent e Word Sort, click HERE!

 

More Reading and Spelling Resources

Long Vowel Word Study App Icon

  • Long Vowel Word Study App – activities for learning the long vowel patterns, on Google Play and iTunes!
  • All About Reading
  • Words Their Way Products
  • 10 Days of Word Study
  • More FREE Elementary Printables from This Reading Mama

 

Enjoy!

~Becky

 

Want MORE Free Teaching Resources?

Join thousands of other subscribers to get hands-on activities and printables delivered right to your inbox!

Filed Under: Phonics and Word Study, Teaching Spelling Tagged With: SWS

« Christmas Activities that will Make Memories {and After School Link Up}
Write a Persuasive Letter: Christmas Writing (Free Printable Included) »

Trackbacks

  1. Free Printable: Reading and Spelling Words with Silent e | Free Homeschool Deals © says:
    December 19, 2013 at 7:52 am

    […] the free printable for Reading and Spelling Words with Silent e from This Reading […]

    Reply
  2. 8 Free silent e phonics readers - The Measured Mom says:
    November 11, 2014 at 7:48 am

    […] I’m sharing another set of phonics readers today – this time featuring the simple silent e words.  I say “simple” because silent e has many roles.  Besides its role of changing the short vowel to a long sound, we can also find silent e in words like have or chance.   You can visit This Reading Mama if you’d like to teach the multiple roles of silent e. […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

JOIN MY NEWSLETTER

and get free printables!

Sign me up!


Hi! I’m Becky, a homeschooling mama with 4 blessings who keep me on my toes {and knees}. Before homeschooling, I was a classroom teacher (M.Ed.) and reading tutor. Read more about me here.

Let’s Get Connected!

  • Email
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Subscribe
  • Shop
  • Checkout
  • Privacy
  • Affiliates

Copyright © 2023 · Designed by Visibilia Media