I don’t know about you, but I’ve struggled in the past when it came to teaching magic/silent E. It’s just a tricky concept for little brains to comprehend!
That’s why I think it’s hugely important to approach it in a fun and engaging way, so that students stay focused and on task.
I find that coloring and using visuals is a better strategy than intricate worksheets in the beginning stages.
This worksheet encourages students to look at the picture and decide if the sound is a short or long vowel sound. They color the pictures based on the sound they hear.
The other way that I love to keep students engaged when learning a tricky concept is by making the activity somewhat hands-on, instead of writing based. Cutting, sorting, and pasting is a great strategy for learners who aren’t magicians with a pencil yet!
This activity asks students to cut out out 8 pictures and sort them. They glue the pictures in the boxes (matching to the correct word). With students who can’t read the word, you can ask them what the picture is and then ask what the initial sound is. For example, they can look for the word that starts with ‘m’ when sorting the mule picture. You can then read the word together.
Once your students are ready, you can move on to the activities that involve a bit of reading and writing.
This worksheet has three words to learn. Students read the words first by sounding out the initial sound and the long vowel. They can also use the picture clues to help them read the word as a whole. Then they write the words by first tracing, using boxes, and then finally writing on their own. This is great for those who struggle with handwriting. Finally, they get to color the pictures as a fun final task!
Sometimes you need an activity that includes lots of tasks to keep your little learners engaged!
This activity asks students to read, write, and color. Then they fill in missing letters and color sounds. They get to trace and write words and even complete a mini word search before coloring pictures based on long vowel sounds. This type of worksheet is a great revision tool.
When your students are finally feeling more confident reading words with a magic E, they can move on to a task that involves just reading.
This worksheet expects students to read a page of words and color them based on a code, depending on the long vowel sound.
It is important that magic E activities are no prep and easy for you to implement, like the ones I’ve talked about in this post. You can get the activities in this post HERE.
Good luck teaching magic E!
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