Learning vowels can be very challenging for our young readers because they make different sounds in different words. Vowels can either make a short sound such as the /a/ sound in the word “cap” or a long sound, such as the /a/ in the word “lake”. When reading, children must decide whether the vowel in the word makes its short or long sound.
Our Children at EY3 segment easily grasped this rule (The Magic e at the end of the word usually changes the short vowel sound into a long vowel sound) to help them determine which sound the vowel will make.
Teaching the Magic E rule is actually a lot of fun. Children showed great interest to learn the magical powers of ‘e’ through a story and song. With a magical wand they eagerly read the words with silent ‘e’ at the end by thinking about the rule they learnt.
To enhance the learning process we had hands-on activities with our Montessori materials to frame and read the magic e words; and sorting words with long and short vowel sounds. These magic e activities made their learning enjoyable and imbibing at the same time.
