Classroom Activities: Silent E

These classroom activities are designed to complement the Silent E topic on BrainPOP Jr.

The Long and Short of It
Have your students make signs that say “long” or “short.” Then call out different words with short or long vowels and have students hold up their signs. They can write the words down in a chart to sort the words. Then have volunteers call out words.

Suffix Chain

Write words with silent e on some index cards and suffixes on others. Then give a card to each student to pin to his or her shirts. Have them mingle throughout the classroom and pair up words and suffixes together. The pairs join their word and suffix together to write a new word together. Remind them to drop the silent e when they add suffixes that start with a vowel.

Clap, Clap, Clap

Have everyone sit in a circle and clap a slow rhythm. Then have each student call out a long vowel word in time with the rhythm when it comes to their turn. Those who cannot name a word with a long vowel word in time are “out.” These students can take turns writing down the words that are called out. You can increase the difficulty of the game by making the students think of rhyming long vowel words, or using only one long vowel, or clapping a faster beat.