Home / Contact Information / Est. 9/1/2007 --- Send us suggestions / STRATEGY / OUR 15 TARGETS / Free public-service message-space now available for everyone. The message can be for any worthwhile product, cause or idea -- including commercial ads -- even ads that primarily benefit your own well-being.

Scroll down to see how to use these words in a lesson plan.
You might want to start with these words. Note that most of these words are very common and most first grade kids will have AT LEAST HALF of them in their speaking vocabulary. We could very well have started our 9,000 ... list with these words -- they are even easier than the CVC words -- because they rhyme. It was an arbitrary decision that we started elsewhere.

THE NEXT STEP: 55 long-vowel, magic “e”, single-syllable rhyme-sets / 414 rhyme-set words
Once students master the list of 9,000 phonetic words in this booklet, they should be introduced to the “magic ‘e’ words”, wherein the vowel preceding an “e” is pronounced as a long vowel. This will probably put another 6,000 words or so on the list; words like “suppose”, “advisedly”, “complicated’, “prideful” and “protuberant”. You might like to start by adding the 414 rhyme-set words below which are easy to learn and see in print. The words shown here are almost all the single-syllable magic “e” words in the English language."

LONG “a”
ade ..........bade, blade, fade, glade, grade, jade, lade, made, shade, spade, trade, wade afe safe
ake ..........bake, brake, cake, drake, fake, flake, hake, jake, lake, make, quake, rake, sake, shake, slake, snake, stake, take, wake
ale ...........ale, bale, dale, gale, hale, kale, male, pale, sale, scale, shale, stale, swale, tale, vale, wale, whale, Yale,
ame .........blame, came, dame, fame, flame, frame, game, lame, name, same, shame, tame
ane ..........bane, cane, crane, dane, Jane, lane, mane, pane, plane, sane, vane, wane
ape ......... ape, cape, crape, drape, gape, grape, jape, nape, rape, scrape, shape, tape
ase ......... base, case, chase, vase
ate ...........ate, bate, crate, date, fate, gate, grate, hate, late, mate, pate, plate, prate, rate, sate, skate, slate, spate, state,
ave ..........brave, cave, crave, fave, gave, grave, nave, pave, rave, save, shave, slave, stave, wave
aze ..........blaze, braze, craze, daze, faze, gaze, glaze, graze, haze, laze, maze, raze

LONG “e”
ere ...........here, mere, there, were, where
ede ..........cede, Mede, Swede
eke ..........eke, peke
eme .........creme, meme, scheme, seme, theme,
ene ..........-ene a suffix, sene, skene,
ete ............Crete, fete, mete, rete, tete (from tete-a-tete, often pronounced t/aa/t-/a/-t/aa/t-)
eve ...........breve, eve, neve

LONG “i”
ive ............chive, dive, drive, five, jive, live, strive
ide ............bide, chide, hide, ride, side, tide,
ife .............fife, life, rife, wife
ike ............bike, dike, hike, like, mike, pike,
ile .............file, isle, mile, Nile, pile, rile, tile, vile, wile
ii/m ..........dime, lime, mime, rime, time
ine ...........dine, fine, line, mine, nine, pine, sine, tine, vine, wine
ise ............vise, wise,
ite .............bite, cite, kite, lite, mite, nite, rite, site, tite
ive ............dive, i’ve, five, hive, jive, live, rive, shrive, skive, strive, thrive, wive
ize ............prize, size

LONG “o”
obe ..........lobe, robe
ode ..........bode, code, lode, mode, node, ode, rode, strode
oke ..........bloke, broke, choke, coke, hoke, joke, poke, smoke, spoke, stoke, stroke, toke, woke, yoke
ole ...........bole, cole, dole, hole, mole, ole, pole, prole, sole, stole, tole, vole, whole
ome .........brome, chrome, dome, gnome, home, Nome, pome, Rome, tome,
one ..........bone, clone, cone, crone, drone, hone, lone, pone, shone, sone, tone, zone
ope .........cope, dope, grope, hope, lope, mope, nope, ope, pope, rope, scope, slope, trope
ose (oo/s) ......close, dose,
ose (oo/z) ......chose, close, hose, nose, pose, prose, rose, those
ose (uu/z) .......lose, whose
ote ..........cote, dote, d’hote, mote, note, quote, rote, smote, tote, vote, wrote
ove (oo/v) .......clove, cove, dove, drove, grove, hove, jove, rove, shrove, stove, strove, throve, trove, wove
ove (uu/v) .......move, prove
oze .........cloze, doze, froze
ore ..........bore, chore, core, fore, ‘fore, gore, lore, more, ore, pore, score, shore, snore, store, sore, spore, swore, tore, wore, yore

LONG “u”
ube .........cube, lube, rube, tube,
ude .........crude, Jude, dude, nude, prude, rude, ‘tude,
uke .........duke, fluke, juke, nuke
ule ...........rule, yule
ume .........brume, flume, fume, Hume (David Hume a philoso- pher), plume, spume,
une ..........dune, June, lune, prune, tune
ure ...........cure, lure, pure, sure, -ure (noun suffix such as in nature, stature, furniture)
use ..........fuse, muse, ruse, ‘scuse, use (all have the speech- sound uu/z)
ute ...........brute, chute, cute, flute, lute, mute
uve (no words)
uze ...........fuze

HOW TO TEACH THE MAGIC "e" WORDS -- A LESSON PLAN

You can either (a) verbally describe the rule and expect the beginner to memorize the rule and apply it or (b) pick the 414 rhyme-set words "ade", "ame" and such as letter combinations that have "speech-sounds" and teach them directly.

Although it is tempting to simply present the rule, I think that is, in fact, much more complicated for the student. I do not think it is difficult for them to learn these rhyme sets directly. They can learn them in sets without being told the rule first. In this way, they can be developing the rule for themselves and "owning" it as they go along.

It is probably easiest to tell them -- "look (show them cards or a list) at all the words there are that have this "ake" letter-combination -- "bake, brake, cake, fake, flake, lake, make, quake, rake, shake, snake, stake, take and wake: whenever you see the 'ake' combination, you can be sure it will stand for the sound you know are in these words".

The "ake" set and every other set should each act like a mnemonic device, triggering the kid's word sense, without demanding that he or she consciously memorize the rules.

While this is going on -- they will be decoding every word and learning good habits. I would expect kids to learn these combinations almost instantly and will thus be able to fluently read every one of these 414 rhyme-set words. Which would you eliminate? Why eliminate any?

By the way -- note that most of these words are very common and most first grade kids will have AT LEAST half of them in their speaking vocabulary. We would leave none of these words out of a starting list of decodable words. We could very well have started our list with these words -- they are even easier than the CVC words -- because they rhyme. It was an arbitrary decision that we started elsewhere.