Silent ‘e’ Words 2

The goal of our Phonics Cafe section is to improve the literacy of young English language learners. This week’s Spotlight lesson, Silent ‘e’ Words 2, focuses on words that end in the unpronounced final ‘e.’ This little letter affects the pronunciation of a word in a big way!  (more…)

Silent E, Evil E, Magic E: Videos and Songs

I’ll never forget the day my son came home and told me all about how evil the letter ‘e’ can be. He taught me that the letter ‘e’ sometimes goes at the end of words and makes the vowels say their names. How rude! While I remember learning about Silent ‘e’ (worked for me), I’ve since learned that there are many other names for this trickster of a letter, including Evil E and Bossy E.

Are you using Sprout English’s Spotlight Phonics lesson in class this week? Have you reviewed Tanya’s pronunciation tips? Here are some fun songs and stories to share with your learners to get these rules to stick!

Evil E

“Say it Vowel! Say your name!”
Young kids act out a funny play with letters and demonstrate how ‘e’ hops over other letters and makes the vowel in front say its name. Evil E is bit of a bully, isn’t he?

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Silent ‘e’ Words: Pronunciation

Do your students have difficulty with the pronunciation of short and long English vowel sounds? There are some spelling rules that can help young learners recognize when a long vowel sound is needed. One such rule involves the final, silent ‘e’ in a word, and this is the focus of this week’s Spotlight lesson: Silent ‘e’ Words 1.

This lesson is one of four involving four-letter words with a silent ‘e’ ending. There are 11 pages of spelling and writing practice in the first lesson, but what about audio? Listening and oral repetition is essential for a good pronunciation lesson. The teacher can certainly model the words, but it’s a good idea to have another source for listening practice too. (more…)

Silent ‘e’ Words: Phonics Lesson

English spelling and pronunciation can be difficult to master, but we can help! Sprout English has four lessons on words ending in the unpronounced final ‘e,’ a little letter that greatly affects the pronunciation of the main vowel of a word. This week’s Spotlight lesson is Silent ‘e’ Words 1. (more…)