Free printable silent e — long u phonics worksheets. Four practice activities: decodable passage, word sort, phrasing cards, and rapid naming chart.
Grade: 1stPhase 3: Long Vowels & Silent EPattern: u_e (magic e / silent e making long U)
cubetubecutemutehugefusemuserudedudedunetunerule
1 Decodable Reading Passage
A short, decodable story embedding silent e — long u words. Students read the passage then highlight all the target words.
Jane's Huge Fort
Skill: Silent E — Long U • Sight Words: the, is, a, and, to, was, it, she, he, they, said, have
Coloring page included in PDF
Jane made a huge hut. She used a big box and a long tube. It was the best hut. Jane grabbed her flute to play a tune. She did not know how to play it well. The tune was not cute. It was a rude tone! Jud ran and hid. "Stop that tune!" Jud yelled. "It hurts my skull." Jane felt bad. She put the flute down. "It is a rule," she said. "No rude tunes in my hut." Jud came back to the hut. He gave Jane a big hug. Then they played in the huge hut together.
Circle or highlight all the silent E words where the vowel says its name (long sound). How many did you find?
Cut out the word cards and sort them into the correct columns: Real Words vs Nonsense Words.
Real Words
Nonsense Words
cube
tube
cute
mute
huge
fuse
muse
rude
dude
dune
tune
rule
mule
flute
prune
brute
duke
lure
pure
cure
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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 cube on tube
a tube in cute
the cute and mute
a mute with huge
the huge on fuse
a fuse in muse
the muse and rude
a rude with dude
the dude on dune
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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 U
duke
huge
cube
duke
dude
dude
cube
mule
duke
mule
cube
huge
huge
cube
dude
mule
Target words: cube, huge, dude, mule, duke
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5 Word Search
Find and circle the silent e — long u words hidden in the grid. Words go across, down, and diagonally — a fun way to reinforce silent e — long u word recognition.
Silent E — Long U Word Search
R
D
B
R
W
F
N
W
I
S
D
U
D
E
U
T
R
J
T
D
N
M
U
S
E
L
D
U
N
E
X
H
O
S
T
M
E
H
I
F
V
Z
T
G
W
U
C
U
T
E
G
N
O
U
M
T
U
A
R
U
C
U
B
E
B
E
M
M
U
R
F
U
S
E
C
E
J
K
D
G
B
P
S
A
A
V
U
I
E
I
M
T
U
N
E
U
H
U
G
E
CUBECUTEDUDEDUNEFUSEHUGEMUSEMUTERUDERULETUBETUNE
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📖 Decodable Readers for Silent E — Long U
Next step: once your child can sound out these words, have them read a matching decodable mini-book. Each Silent E — Long U reader is a printable story + coloring page using only sounds they've learned.
The silent e, or magic e, pattern for long U (u_e) is a crucial step in first-grade phonics, following mastery of short vowels and CVC words. Young learners often find this pattern tricky because the 'e' at the end of words like "cube" or "cute" doesn't make a sound itself but transforms the short 'u' sound into its long counterpart. Without the silent 'e', "cut" sounds very different from "cute," and "tub" from "tube." A common error is for children to mispronounce u_e words with a short 'u' sound, saying "cub" instead of "cube," or "hug" instead of "huge," because they are still relying on their earlier CVC knowledge. Emphasizing that the final 'e' is silent but powerful in changing the vowel sound is key to unlocking these words.
To effectively practice the u_e pattern, these worksheets provide a structured approach. Begin with the word sort, guiding children to group words like "flute," "brute," and "prune" by their shared long U sound, reinforcing visual recognition of the u_e pattern. The decodable passage, "Jane's Huge Fort," specifically integrates these target words, allowing children to apply their decoding skills in context. Encourage them to highlight or circle the u_e words as they read. Use the phrasing cards to build fluency, having students read phrases like "a cute mule" or "play the tune" with correct pronunciation and intonation. Finally, utilize the Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) chart to build quick recognition of u_e words, helping them instantly identify "duke," "lure," and "pure" without hesitation.
