Step 4: Magic e (& contractions detour)

Magic e Definitions:
VCE stands for Vowel, Consonant, e, which are the last 3 letters in a the Magic e syllable. The e signals that the vowel that is two spaces before it says it’s name. The Magic e is always at the end of a word (bike, explode). The exception is when the Magic e is at the end of the first word in a compound word (spacewalk, baseball). There can be an ending after the Magic e like in bikes.
CCVCE signals there will be blends (two consonants, cc) at the beginning of the Magic e words.

Written Stories

• Written Story: Magic e as told in Teaching Video
• Written Story: 2 Sounds for Long u Story as told in Teaching Video
• Alternate Explanation For the 2 Sounds of Long u:
  • The name of the letter u is pronounced like the word “you”.  This word has two phonemes (sounds): the /y/ sound (as in yes), and then the /oo/ sound (as in moon).  In words like use and cute the letter u’s full name is heard.
  • When the u is saying its name, it often goes by a nickname (a shorter version of its name).  For its nickname the u drops the first phoneme (sound) /y/ and we only hear the second phoneme (sound) /oo/.  We only hear the /oo/ sound of the u’s name in words like tube and flute.

• Magic e Syllable Poster
• Magic e Syllable Cover Sheet
• Vowel Protectors Poster
• 2 sounds of c Poster
• 2 sounds of g poster

Once open, click FILE, then DOWNLOAD, and download in Microsoft PowerPoint for the formatting to be correct.

• PowerPoint: Magic e from Teaching Video
• PowerPoint: Practice Reading Magic e Words in Chunks
• PowerPoint: All Syllable Types with Practice (Directions in notes section on each slide) Use only slides that are relevant to where you are in the steps.

TEACH ALONG THE WAY ●●●

Teach and add the relevant sounds (ce, ci, cy, ca, etc. and ge, gi, gy, ga, etc.) from the Big Sounds Pack to daily practice.

ce, ci, cy say /s/: When a c is followed by an e, i or y it says its soft sound /s/. When a c is followed by a, o, u or any consonant letter, it says it’s hard sound /k/. Find more resources here.

ge, gi, gy say /j/: When g is followed by an e, i or y it usually says its soft sound /ğ/ as in gym. When g is followed by a, o, u or any consonant letter, it usually says it’s hard sound /ḡ/ as in gate. There are more exceptions to this than for the c. Find more resources here.

Vowel Protectors protect vowels from Magic e: As we learned in Steps 1 and 2, -ck, -ffsszzll, -tch and -dge come after a short vowel to protect it from a Magic e. Letters are also doubled in words to act as vowel protectors like in the words peppermint and planned.

We do not end words in v, j, i or u: In English, we do not end words in v, j, i or u. (The four common exceptions are the pronouns you, thou, hi and I). In a word that ends in a vowel, v, e the first vowel might not say its name since the e may be there so the v is not at the end. The i in give says its sound, the a in gave says it’s name, and the i in live is pronounced both ways!

Act Out Open, Closed and Magic e Syllables Just like teaching the Open and Closed syllables, make letter cards and act out what the vowel would say in different situations, and now include the Magic e running up to a word.  Find directions here.

Contractions Detour!
Sometimes we shove 2 words together and use an an apostrophe to show where we took out the letter(s). “Is not” can also be “isn’t.”

Bundle: Contractions Lesson and 4 Games
– Contractions PowerPoint
– Contractions flashcards: Match the contraction to the words spelled out.

Note on Spelling: It is important to be writing the words that are being worked on each step of the way. Use the words in the lists and stories. Word chains are particularly effective as they also work on identifying individual sounds within words.

Map Sounds to Letters

Map the sounds in the word to the letter(s) representing the sounds, even if it is not a letter combination that has been taught yet. Only an unusual sound/letter combination needs to be remembered “by heart.” Mapping the sounds to the letters is how we remember what words look like. See example below:

Be sure to reinforce what you know and are learning about words, for example:
Schwa Sound: Any vowel might say /ŭ/. Point out that this happens in many common words like: the, of, was, some, from…

KEY:
K-1 Beginning
1-2 Growing
Intervention/Challenge

Bundle: Additional various activities to practice a specific skill
Pack: Additional multiple versions of a specific activity to practice a specific skill

Directions for everything else:

More on the Directions Page

• Highlighting Lists
• Working with Flashcards
• Flashing Words with flashcards
• Games with Picture Cards
• Games with Words/Phrases on Game Board
• Game I Have, Who Has
• Game Bang!
• Game Bingo
• Spelling help found on the Spelling Page in the Teach Along The Way section
• Small Book Assembly 
• Small Book 4 pager Assembly
• Syllable Sort Directions
  • Syllable Sort Headings
  • Strategy for Splitting Syllables

Magic e Bundles

Magic e with mostly CVC words Bundle Magic e level 1 with mosty CVC words with words, pyramids with flashcards, games and stories
Magic e with blends and multiple syllable words Bundle Magic e level 2 with blends and Multiple Syllable words with pyramids with flashcards, games and stories

Magic e Packs

Magic e VCE Beginning Fluency Pyramids #1-10 Pack with wordlists and index (included in bundles above)
Magic e VCE with only CVC words Games Pack (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e VCE Spelling Pack Word Chains 1-9
Magic e VCE Pack 4 page with only CVC words 4 Page Stories #1-8 horizontal format (also in CVC Bundle above)
Magic e VCE Pack 4 page with CVC words and blends 4 Page Stories #9-15 horizontal format (also in blends Bundle above)
Magic e VCE Pack 4 page 4 Page Stories #1-15 all together
Magic e VCE full page story Pack Full Page Story with List ALL

See Highlighting Word Lists.

Word Lists
Magic e CVC to CVCE word pairs list It is the Sam Same Sock Sam (also in CVC Bundle above)
Magic e CVC to CVCE fold to cover the e list Hide (also in CVC Bundle above)
Magic e VCE word families Ace vertical lists
Magic e VCE word families Cake For A Snake horizontal tracking
Magic e CCVCE by word family Snake Grape with blends
Magic e VCE mixed word list 1 Is It Ripe
Magic e VCE mixed word list 2 Bone
Magic e VCE two sounds for ū Use Dude.
Magic e VCE ce and ge list with and without challenge question at end

VCE Phrases
Magic e VCE words and phrases activity How Many Can You Find and Say: Gross!
Magic e VCE phrases a words A Safe Male Rat
Magic e VCE phrases i words I Can Ride A Mile
Magic e VCE phrases o words A Mole In The Hole
Magic e VCE phrases 2 sounds for ū words A Cute Mule
Magic e VCE phrases timing option Cube of Ice
Magic e VCE phrases timing option In The Crate
Magic e VCE sentences timing option Jake Has A Fake Snake

Multiple Syllable
Magic e VCE 2 syllables to put together and read Explore
Open, Closed and Magic e CV CVC VCE Multiple syllable divisions Which Side Should I Go? broken into syllables
Magic e VCE compound words Inside
Magic e CVC CV VCE mixed practice multi-syllable divisions Robin
Magic e CVC CV VCE (mostly closed) mixed practice multi-syllable MUSTANG
Magic e Challenge CVC VCE multiple syllable words, definitions and sentences Divide and Define #1
Magic e Challenge CVC VCE multiple syllable words, definitions, sentences Divide and Define #2

Magic e VCE Flashcards and Sort
Magic e VCE Flashcards
Magic e VCE Flip Chute Cards (See directions for Flip Chute Cards on the Directions page.)
Magic e VCE Open, Closed, Magic e Word Changes flashcards/activity (includes directions)
Magic e VCE Make Words with VCE endings and Blends Flashcards/activity (includes directions)

Pyramids are great for automaticity with words, feeling successful and fluency.

Magic e VCE Beginning Fluency Pyramids #1-10 Pack with wordlists and index (included in bundles above)

Game Directions

Sound Games
Magic e VCE a, i sounds Trains
Magic e VCE o, u sounds Sports
Magic e VCE o, a, i sounds Bird and Squirrel

Word Games (c cays /s/ and g says /j/ when followed by an e)
Magic e VCE with only CVC words Games Pack (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e CVC to CVCE words Cut a Cute Cape (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e CVC to CVCE Do You See The e? (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e CVC to CVCE We Hope to See Our Pals (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e CV to CVC to CVCE words Butterflies (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e VCE words I Like A Nice Bone (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e VCE words Ice Cream Cones Yum (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e VCE words Fun at the Lake (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e CVC and VCE ZAP
Magic e VCE words Ovals1 (included in blends Bundle 2 above)
Magic e VCE words Ovals 2 (included in blends Bundle 2 above)
Magic e CCVCE words Trace the Whale (included in blends Bundle 2 above)
Magic e CVCE words Capture the Shark (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e CVCE words Capture the Jellyfish (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)

Phrase Games
Magic e VCE a phrases I Like to Bake (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e VCE i phrases Game Time (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e VCE o phrases Get the Hose (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e VCE u phrases Cute Mule (included in CVC Bundle 1 above)
Magic e VCE phrases A Cute Red Rose
Magic e VCE phrases Chimp on a Vine
Magic e VCE phrases Name the Mice
Magic e VCE sentences I Hid Your Gift (included in blends Bundle 2 above)

Practice with words from the lists, games etc., or use the lists below.
* Having learners spell with word chains where the coach says “change one sound in (chop) to spell (chip), now change one sound in (chip) to spell (sip)” is a powerful way to draw student’s attention to individual sounds in the words!

Use Magic e lists for spelling words. Mix Magic e words with closed syllable words. When spelling multiple syllable words pronounce and spell one syllable at a time.

Magic e VCE Spelling Pack Word Chains 1-9
Magic e VCE Spelling Word Chain Wake to Spit

Syllable Sort Directions
Syllable Sort Headings
Breaking up words strategy page

Closed and Magic e word sort
Open, Closed and Magic e syllable sort

Small Book assembly directions, 4 Pager folding directions, OR use horizontal format for reading on screen in distance learning.

Magic e VCE Pack 4 page with only CVC words 4 Page Stories #1-8 horizontal format (also in CVC Bundle above)
Magic e VCE Pack 4 page with CVC words and blends 4 Page Stories #9-15 horizontal format (also in blends Bundle above)
Magic e VCE Pack 4 page 4 Page Stories #1-15 all together
Magic e VCE small book Cub in a Cube cvc cvce horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE small book I Like Mice foldable format
Magic e VCE small book What to feed Cute Mice foldable format
Magic e VCE small book Who Is She cvc vc vce foldable format
Magic e VCE small book Mice Are Nice ccvc vce horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE small book The Big Egg Mess cvc cvce ll ss horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE small book Would You Like To vce horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE small book Rub a Dub Dub cvc cvce horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE small book Brave Snake cvce ccvce horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE small Book Bad, Bad horizontal and vertical formats
4 page Books:
Magic e VCE 4 page Late For The Date -ate family horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE 4 page My Best Day -ake family horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE 4 page Cap Man cvc cvce horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE 4 page Jane and Mike Were Late horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE 4 page Who took a Slice horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE 4 page Vote for Super Hero horizontal and vertical formats
Magic e VCE 4 page The Race with a Cheat (vowel team ea) horizontal and vertical formats

Magic e VCE teach vce + ing small book Baking horizontal format

See Highlighting Word Lists

All included in blends Bundle 2 above
Magic e VCE Full Page Stories with Lists Pack Full Page Story with List ALL

Magic e VCE Full Page Story with List -ake family Make a Joke
Magic e VCE Full Page Story with List -ame family My Tame Goat
Magic e VCE Full Page Story with List -ave, -ake, -ale families The Tale of Dave
Magic e VCE Full Page Story with List mixed Dave was Late
Magic e VCE Full Page Story with List mixed The Strike
Magic e VCE Full Page Story with List with c and g Bruce