Free printable silent e — long o phonics worksheets. Four practice activities: decodable passage, word sort, phrasing cards, and rapid naming chart.
Grade: 1stPhase 3: Long Vowels & Silent EPattern: o_e (magic e / silent e making long O)
boneconetonezonehomedomeholemolepolerolehoperope
1 Decodable Reading Passage
A short, decodable story embedding silent e — long o words. Students read the passage then highlight all the target words.
Gus and the Mole
Skill: Silent E — Long O • Sight Words: the, is, a, and, to, was, it, she, he, they, said, have
Coloring page included in PDF
Gus had a huge bone. He wanted a safe place to hide it. "This is a good zone," Gus thought. He dug a big hole in the wet mud.
Plop! A small mole stuck his nose out of the hole. Gus just woke him up! The mole gave Gus a mad look. "Do not dig here," the mole said. "This is my home!"
Gus felt bad. He did not want to wake him up. "I will go," Gus said in a kind tone.
Gus got his bone and ran to a big red rose. He dug a new hole in the mud. He put the bone in and made it flat. "I hope the mole can sleep now."
Cut out the word cards and sort them into the correct columns: Real Words vs Nonsense Words.
Real Words
Nonsense Words
bone
cone
tone
zone
home
dome
hole
mole
pole
role
tobe
boke
mose
fone
gope
roke
dole
nope
lobe
zote
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3 Phrasing Practice Cards
Practice reading these phrases for fluency. Cut out the cards and read them quickly and smoothly.
the bone on cone
a cone in tone
the tone and zone
a zone with home
the home on dome
a dome in hole
the hole and mole
a mole with pole
the pole on role
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4 RAN Chart (Rapid Naming)
Read each word in the grid as quickly as you can. Time yourself and try to beat your best time!
Decodable RAN Chart — Silent E — Long O
bone
nose
vote
pole
home
bone
home
pole
bone
bone
vote
vote
pole
nose
nose
home
Target words: bone, home, pole, nose, vote
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5 Word Search
Find and circle the silent e — long o words hidden in the grid. Words go across, down, and diagonally — a fun way to reinforce silent e — long o word recognition.
Silent E — Long O Word Search
H
O
L
E
A
B
B
I
T
E
H
V
G
E
G
K
Z
N
R
E
R
F
M
V
Q
P
O
J
O
B
B
O
N
E
F
W
N
A
P
T
T
L
L
R
Y
A
E
N
E
M
O
P
S
E
F
D
M
O
L
E
N
H
O
M
E
O
W
C
A
Q
E
K
G
D
U
M
P
O
L
E
X
A
M
S
H
E
Y
M
Q
M
C
O
N
E
X
F
H
O
P
E
BONECONEDOMEHOLEHOMEHOPEMOLEPOLEROLEROPETONEZONE
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📖 Decodable Readers for Silent E — Long O
Next step: once your child can sound out these words, have them read a matching decodable mini-book. Each Silent E — Long O reader is a printable story + coloring page using only sounds they've learned.
Understanding the Silent E, specifically with the long O sound (o_e), is a crucial step for first graders as they move beyond basic CVC words. This pattern, often called "Magic E," signifies that the final 'e' makes the vowel 'o' say its name, while the 'e' itself remains silent. Young learners frequently mispronounce words like "bone" as "bon" or "note" as "not," failing to recognize the transformative power of the silent 'e'. They may also struggle to distinguish between minimal pairs such as "hope" and "hop" or "rose" and "ros," where the silent 'e' is the sole differentiator for the long vowel sound. Mastering this concept is vital for accurate decoding and encoding, preventing common reading and spelling errors.
To effectively teach the o_e pattern, utilize these worksheets strategically. Begin with the decodable passage, "Rose Fixes the Cake," guiding students to identify and highlight all the o_e words like "rose," "note," and "joke." Follow up with the word sort, having them categorize words based on the long O sound created by the silent 'e'. The phrasing cards can then be used to build fluency, encouraging students to read phrases containing o_e words smoothly and with expression. Finally, incorporate the Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) chart, challenging students to quickly and accurately name the o_e words, solidifying their recognition and recall of this essential phonics pattern.
