Goal
Understand how a silent e turns a short vowel into a long one — one of those rules that unlocks a huge number of new words at once.
You'll need
- Split Digraph Flashcards
How to do it
Show your child a split digraph word — "make" or "rope" are good starting points. Point out the pattern: vowel, consonant, then e at the end. The e is silent, but it reaches back across the consonant to change the vowel sound.
Compare pairs: "cap" vs "cape", "bit" vs "bite", "hop" vs "hope". Say both versions together and let the difference land. The silent e is doing a lot of quiet work.
Work through the flashcards. When they've got the pattern, see if they can find split digraph words in a book. That moment of spotting it in the wild is when you know it's clicked.
Grab our resources
Print our split digraph flashcards to get started.
