Free printable short e phonics worksheets. Five practice activities: decodable passage, word sort, phrasing cards, rapid naming chart, and word search.
A free illustrated mini-book for Short E, plus the same story as a passage sheet for highlighting.
A full-color picture book your student reads on their own. Skill: Short E. Print, cut and staple.
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Pip had ten red hens. But the hens ran and ran. Pip had to get them in the pen. He ran to get the hens, but the hens did not stop. A hen ran in the wet sod. "Get in the pen!" Pip said. Then, Pip had a good thing to do. He got a tub of wet mud. He put his leg in the mud. He bent his leg and let it kick the mud. Wet mud got on the hens! The hens did not like the wet mud. The hens ran and ran to get in the pen! Pip got them back to the pen. He set a peg on the pen.
When e sits between two consonants, it usually says its short sound, /ĕ/, as in egg.
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The words this story set practices, in the two groups used by the word sort.
bed, red, fed, led, wed, hen, pen, ten, men, den, pet
ped, hep, kem, teg, zeb, nen, bem, jev, wep, ked
Short E words to read, match and write, with pictures. Each PDF has its answer key on page 2.
The sheets above are free. The pack is every sheet for short a, i, o, e and u in order, a review set and all the answer keys, ready to print.
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4 ready-to-print PDFs for this story's short e words. Each one opens as its own file.
Cut-apart word cards to sort: Real Words or Nonsense Words. Answer key on page 2.
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More picture worksheets: beginning sounds, ending sounds, rhyming and syllables — new pictures every time you print.
A new decodable story with the same short e sounds — each comes with its own set of worksheets.
Mastering the short 'e' sound, often found in CVC words like "bed," "hen," and "jet," is a crucial step in early phonics, following initial work with short 'a'. This sound is produced with the mouth slightly open, tongue flat, and often presents challenges because young learners might confuse it with the short 'i' sound (saying "bin" instead of "ben") or even the short 'a' sound (saying "bat" instead of "bet"). The subtle difference in tongue placement between 'e' and 'i' can be tricky, leading to common mispronunciations like "pin" for "pen" or "git" for "get." Focusing on the clear, crisp 'eh' sound helps children differentiate these close vowel sounds, building a strong foundation for decoding. Our short 'e' worksheets provide targeted practice to solidify this sound. Begin with the decodable passage from "Pip's Ten Hens," guiding your child to sound out each word, emphasizing the 'eh' in "ten," "hens," and "fed." The word sort activity encourages active listening, helping them categorize words like "red" and "leg" by their shared short 'e' sound, distinguishing them from other vowels. Use the phrasing cards to build fluency, prompting them to read phrases like "a red hen" or "get wet" smoothly. Finally, the Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) chart for short 'e' words will boost their speed and accuracy in recognizing these common CVC words, ensuring they can quickly retrieve and pronounce them without hesitation.
For more early literacy resources, explore our sight word flashcards, tracing worksheets, handwriting worksheets, and coloring pages.
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