About this activity
Fourteen pairs where one letter changes the whole word: cap and cape, tap and tape, kit and kite, bit and bite, hop and hope, not and note, cub and cube, tub and tube, man and mane, pin and pine, rob and robe, cut and cute, rid and ride, mad and made. The e at the end says nothing and changes the vowel in the middle, which is one of the most powerful patterns in English.
How to use it in a session
Read the pairs together and ask what changed. Cap and cape differ by one letter and by an entire vowel sound, and hearing them back to back is the whole lesson. Then run it in reverse: give a long-vowel word and ask which letter to remove. Ten minutes covers the fourteen pairs with both directions.
What to listen for
Watch for the e being pronounced. Cape read as cap-ee means the child has the letter and not the rule, which is a specific and common error. Notice whether the rule transfers to a word they have not seen — that is the difference between memorising fourteen pairs and having the pattern.
Carrying it home
Adding an e to a three-letter word is a game that takes seconds. Asking what happens if you add an e to hop, and letting the child hear hope appear, is more memorable than any explanation.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First and second, as core phonics work on vowel patterns.
- Do I need to sign in?
- No, all fourteen pairs play free.
- Is the silent e rule reliable?
- For these words, entirely, and it covers a very large number of common ones. The exceptions — have, give, come — are worth teaching separately rather than letting them undermine the pattern.