Free Magic E Syllable Practice Worksheet

This free Magic E Syllable practice worksheet helps kids differentiate between closed, open, and Magic E (VCe) syllables. Use this no-prep resource with students once you’ve introduced the Magic E syllable type.

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Purple image with title "Magic E Syllable Practice" with picture of the worksheet and a magic wand.

Table of Contents

What Is the Magic E Syllable?

The Magic E (ME) syllable is one of six syllable types in English. The 6 syllable types are: Closed, Open, Magic E, R-controlled, Vowel team/Diphthong, and Consonant+le.

The Magic E syllable type is sometimes referred to as the Silent E or VCe syllable and it’s simply a syllable that ends with this pattern: Vowel-Consonant-E.

In these syllables, the E is at the end and stays silent. The job of the e is to make the vowel that comes before it say its long vowel sound (or its name).

A pink graphic entitled "Magic E (VCe) Syllables with three magic e words words and examples included.

Words with Magic E Syllables:

like
Jake
age
nose
rude
cave
out/side
time/line
ar/rive
be/came
ab/so/lute
mi/cro/scope

As noted in the list above, Magic E syllables occur in one-syllable or multisyllabic words.

Most Magic E syllables will come at the end of a word, unless it’s a compound word or if a suffix is added to it.

This syllable type is especially important because thousands of words include Magic E syllables!

Practice Worksheet

The Magic E pattern is usually taught after kids can accurately read open & closed syllables and VC/CV Words. We’ve designed the practice worksheet to help students recognize and read words with these three syllable types.

Kids will practice with 60 total words, organized in groups of three. Each group of words begins with the same letters, with 1 open syllable word, 1 closed syllable word, and 1 Magic E syllable word.

Here’s how we recommend using the resource:

Kids will code the words, labeling the vowels and consonants, and placing breves and macrons above the vowels.
Kids will identify each syllable type and label C-Closed, O-Open, and ME-Magic E.
Kids will read each word in the group, noticing how the vowel sound changes depending on the syllable type.

Important: You’ll notice that many of the open-syllable words included on this resource are nonsense words. This is intentional and important, because tons of multisyllabic real words are made up of nonsense syllables!

👉🏼 For example, this worksheet includes these three words grouped together: twin-twine-twi. You’ll notice ‘twi’ is a nonsense word. But, think about the word ‘twilight = twi+light’ Your students will need to be able to read the nonsense open syllable “twi,” pronouncing the long i sound, in order to read the word accurately.

A dry erase board with several magic e word coded to mark the vowels and consonants.

How to Mark 1 Syllable Words

Marking words forces kids to deeply analyze words. They need to think about the patterns they see and apply the rules they’ve learned.

The marks then serve as visual cues to help students know how to read the words accurately. Marking words also strengthens visual memory which aids students when spelling.

This is a simple way to mark (or code) words:

Find the vowels. Label them with a V.
Find the consonants that come after the vowel. Label them with a C.
Mark the vowel with a macron (a straight line mark above the vowel) if the vowel is long.
Mark the vowel with a breve (a small u-shaped mark above the vowel) if the vowel is short.
If the word includes a final silent e, put a slash through the E. This will remind the reader that the E stays silent.

Teaching students this procedure will be especially helpful as they begin to use syllabication for decoding multisyllabic words.

Related Teaching Resources

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