Mnemonics Archives - Pure Joy Teaching

Final Silent E is Helper Letter

More than just magic E. The final silent E is often overlooked and under- taught as a valuable spelling skill that can help many students who struggle with spelling.

Learning this helpful pattern helps to explain lots of predictable English spellings.

One of the best ways to explain why the letter E is so busy helping is because ot the spelling rule that says these four letters are not allowed to be at the end of English words. So naturally, they need a silent helper, or another letter steps in and helps.

Visual pictures are more engaging to young learners.

Learning can be fun when you link the spelling rules and patterns into groups that make sense of the spelling patterns.

At Pure Joy Teaching, we use visuals and educational games to highlight these spelling patterns. Starting with CVCe- Crazy 8-style game that uses the word play of (ate) as wild cards. It includes soft c & g and tricky words that have the letter S making the Z sound.

What are the silent E rules?

While many people learn only the basic “magic e” rule, silent e performs eight distinct jobs in English spelling and pronunciation:

Making the preceding vowel long (CVCe pattern): The silent e signals that the preceding vowel should say its long sound (its name). Examples include cape, kite, hope, and cube.
Preventing words from ending in V or U: Native English words do not end in the letters v or u, so a final silent e is added. Examples include have, give, love, blue, and true.
Softening C and G: A silent e after the letters c or g changes their pronunciation to soft sounds—turning c into /s/ and g into /j/. Examples include face, ice, cage, and huge.
Preventing singular words from looking plural: Adding a silent e to singular base words ending in s prevents them from looking like plurals. Examples include house, nurse, horse, and moose (differentiating it from moos).
Giving every syllable a vowel: Since every English syllable must contain at least one vowel, silent e provides the vowel in consonant--le (C-le) syllables. Examples include table, apple, little, and bubble.
Making short words look complete: English orthography visually favors words that are at least three letters long, so a silent e is added to short words to give them standard length. Examples include awe, are, bye, owe, and tie.
Changing TH from unvoiced to voiced: Silent e modifies the th digraph from an unvoiced sound to a voiced sound.. Examples include changing bath to bathe and breath to breathe.
Distinguishing meaning between homophones: Silent e helps readers differentiate between words or homophones that sound the same but have different meanings or grammatical functions. Examples include or vs. ore, for vs. fore, and by vs. bye

Nessy has a great video for the -ve rule and sight word have.

Point v, can not be alone at the end of words.

The syllable rule: every syllable needs a written vowel. We have a PICKLE Game for that. This game also inlcudes a colored spelling patterns for the vowels. It’s more than just silent E, is using advacned spelling patterns with a key card that students can use to decode the vowels, vowel teams, R-controlled, and tricky Y.

Student love this game. It has lots of action cards with the pickle theme.

You Can Teach Spelling Rules in Game Style

Easy-prep literacy game for reviewing the many reasons for the silent e. This highly engaging card game. Colorful picture-embedded phonics to support the spelling rules and patterns. I have, who has ? Will have your first-grade or second-grade students reading Long Vowels with Silent E with ease!

The rules for silent E are embedded into a reading game style activity. Who has?

Visuals in books and stories are another way to explain spelling patterns to students. In this book: The Vowel Tree, by author D. Passmore. The little letter U is shown as scared to be alone, and the letter E comes to the rescue.

Spelling to the Rescue

Thank you so much for reading this article. Please follow me on Facebook and TPT for more spelling support.

Why Can My Child Sound Out Words, But Still Struggle to Understand What They Read?

If you are a parent or educator of a child with dyslexia, you may have encountered a puzzling gap: your student can decode words, but their reading fluency is multiple grade levels behind, and their reading comprehension is dangerously low.

When schools focus solely on decoding accuracy as the requirement for extra support, children with fluency and comprehension deficits often get left behind. But science tells us that sounding out words is only the first step—and without automaticity, reading becomes an exhausting mental effort.

The Science: The Working Memory Bottleneck

To understand why a child who can sound out words still struggles to comprehend, we have to look at how the human brain processes information:

Working Memory is Strictly Limited: Cognitive Load Theory shows that our working memory (our conscious “mental workspace”) can only hold roughly 4 to 7 chunks of new information at once.
Labored Decoding Overloads the Brain: When a child has not yet mastered automatic word recognition, sounding out letters requires conscious, step-by-step mental calculation.
The “Memory Decay” Effect: Imagine trying to read a long page of random numbers. You might pronounce every single digit correctly, but by the time you reach the end of the line, your brain has forgotten the numbers at the beginning.

When a child with dyslexia spends all their cognitive energy translating letters into sounds, their working memory reaches cognitive overload. There is simply no mental space left over to organize ideas, connect sentences, or remember what was just read.

How We Bridge the Gap: Offloading Cognitive Strain

The key to helping dyslexic readers transition from labored decoding to true comprehension is reducing extraneous cognitive load—taking the heavy mechanical strain off working memory so the brain can focus on meaning.

Here is how targeted, structured literacy tools make reading easier and more effective:

Visual Picture Mnemonics (Dual Coding): The brain processes visual images and spoken sounds through two separate channels. Embedded picture mnemonics—like turning the vowel team ui into a basket of fruit—give students an immediate visual anchor. Instead of frantically searching their memory for an abstract rule, the visual cue instantly unlocks the sound, saving precious working memory capacity.
“Chunk and Chew” Reading Formats: Long, dense paragraphs overwhelm short-term storage. Decodable comic formats break stories into bite-sized, digestible panels. Asking a child to read a short section and draw the scene forces them to build a mental picture of the story, ensuring they comprehend as they go.
Logical Rules Over Rote Memorization: English spelling can feel full of random “exceptions” that frustrate dyslexic learners. For example, knowing that Final Silent E acts as a guardian because English words do not end in v or u turns confusing words like have or blue into a logical schema. Giving students clear structural rules removes trial-and-error guessing.
Visual Phonics for Tricky Words: Homophones (like there and their) cause major cognitive friction. Embedding subtle visual clues directly into letter shapes—like dressing the letter i in their in a sports uniform to mean “I am on their team”—helps students permanently map word spellings and meanings into long-term memory.

Making Literacy Accessible and Joyful

Dyslexia is not a reflection of a child’s intelligence or effort—it is a working memory challenge. When we provide visual anchors, bite-sized practice, and logical spelling frameworks, we remove the “spelling tax” and free up their minds to discover the true joy of reading.

At Pure Joy Teaching, our structured phonics games, decodable comics, and picture-embedded anchor charts are designed using these exact Science of Reading principles. They give parents and educators simple, no-prep tools that reduce cognitive load and build confident, fluent readers.

Why Some Children Know the Alphabet… But Still Can’t Read

If you have a struggling reader and are looking for more resources to help you help them at home on in the classroom. Here are a few more things that have worked for us. These are not affiliate links, just honest advise.

Nessy has a free spelling Ebook. It is great for students, and they have lots of great videos.

Uncovering the Logic of English, by Author Denise Eide. It is a great book, and she has lots of great videos.

Thank you for visiting this page. Please follow us on Facebook.

Support Reading Skills with Games

Building Cognitive Flexibility and Supporting Reading Intervention with Uno-Style & Crazy 8 Spelling Games

These colorful, engaging card games are more than just fun—they’re powerful tools for building cognitive flexibility and reinforcing essential spelling and decoding skills. Designed in the style of popular games like Uno and Crazy 8, these four targeted spelling games support reading intervention while keeping learners motivated and engaged.

Uno-style CVCC Game with Spelling Rule Cards

What’s Included:

Each game focuses on a foundational spelling pattern:

CVC – Simple consonant-vowel-consonant words, perfect for early readers. Carefully selected to avoid confusing endings like “r” or “z.”
CVCC – Emphasizes ending blends and introduces nine essential spelling rules (like ck, wa, qu, double consonants, and soft c/g). Blends such as nd, mp, nk, and others are practiced with separate flashcards.
CVCe – Also known as the “Magic e” pattern, this game incorporates six spelling rules, including when o says /ŭ/ and when s sounds like /z/.
R-Controlled – Covers patterns like ar, or, ur, er, and more complex sounds like air and oar, along with homophones and tricky combinations (w+ar, w+or).

How These Games Build Cognitive Flexibility:

Cognitive flexibility involves shifting attention, adapting to new rules, and recognizing patterns—skills that are constantly exercised as players sort, match, and interpret cards based on multiple spelling rules and phonics cues. The color-coded format strengthens visual memory and reinforces sound-symbol correspondence.

Ideal for:

Reading intervention groups
Small group instruction
Independent centers
Home practice with families

Students can use these as traditional flashcards or jump into fast-paced gameplay, practicing decoding, blending, and rule application in a low-stress, highly engaging format. Wild cards representing spelling rules further deepen understanding and allow teachers to differentiate instruction with ease.

In short, these games blend play and pedagogy, making foundational literacy practice fun, effective, and flexible.

Spelling Clip cards are a great way to gamify a spelling test.

Chef vs Magician, Sh Sound Spelling ci, ti, si, Card Games

Blending Board Letter Storage Idea

The magazine file holders are a perfect fit for my shelf. They are within reach of my reading table. The boards slide right in. They are big enough to fit smaller cookie sheets too.

A Magazine Storage File, Makes a Great Divider on My Literacy Shelf.

Easy Way to Store the Different Letter Boards

There are many reasons why I took the time to create extra blending broads. Then, I needed a way to store all the extra boards. The magazine file holders are a perfect fit for my shelf. They are within reach of my reading table. The boards slide right in. They are big enough to fit smaller cookie sheets too.

Clear L-Pocket Covers

Each whiteboard is covered with a clear plastic L pocket before it is put on the shelf. We call it the clear blanket. The younger kids say, “Time for the letters to go night-night”. After they put all the letters back in place, they slip each whiteboard into the pocket. Making sure the open end is at the top and the folder end is at the bottom. So, no letter tiles will escape.

The cookies nest together very nicely, we usually don’t cover them.

Leveled Letter Groups

UFli is great. They have wide range of free things in the toolbox. The Satpim order is not taught in the UFLi scope and sequence, but the decodable books that were available at my school were the Satpim style. So, I adapted some of my blending boards to have less letters. This was helpful for a few reasons.

Fewer letters to start with.
Less to clean up or lose.
Less distraction on the blending board.
Costs less – fewer magnets needed.
Sorted pre-made boards for differentiated invention groups.

Blending Without Tears

Some students can’t handle all 26 letters at once. One boy started to cry. He was new to group and he did not have all his sounds yet. When we switched to less letters it was easier for him to keep up.

The result was more organized system that flowed will with the scope and sequence of each group.

Lines Under the Letters

I also added lines under the letters. To help aid the students with the letter reversal issues. b, d, p, q, n, u, m, w. All these letters were creating problems. Some students said things like, “I have two m’s.” I had to admit without the bottom line as reference it did look like she had two letter m’s.

Extra Letters

It has proven to be helpful to have a box of extra letters near by. With out fail some how the letters get misplaced. This large shorting box has been very handy.

Vowel Importance – Red Letters

Sometimes we need to do a little extra vowel pratice. These cvc word builder sheets let student put the missing vowel sound in the word next to the picture. The self-checking flap help it to feel more like a game.

Mnemonic Letter Tiles

Some struggling reader need little bit of extra phonemic support with the letter sounds. It is another way to scafold the learning.

CVC Uno game for Emergent Readers

Sound Wall Frame for Intervention

A Simple Black Frame Has Inspired Students to Draw Decodable Sounds.

Sound Wall frame . Letter g Pure Joy Teaching — Sound Wall Frame. Letter g Pure Joy Teaching

Art has always been my first love, and it is a great way for students to make sound connections to letters, digraphs, spelling patterns, and heart words.

Any space can easily be used for this type of visual-sound encouragement.

I used a lightweight plastic frame with no glass and painted it black. I also colored the tacks black with a large permanent marker so that they were hidden. Now, the focus is on the art and the sounds.

Easy Step to Create a Sound Wall

Cut the background fabric a little larger than the frame opening.
Pin or staple the fabric to the wall.
Place large black tacks in the corner of the frame opening. Let the frame hang on the tacks inside the top two corners.
Let students draw pictures inside the letters to help them make sound connections. (Try to encourage using the letter shapes to make sound links to relatable words. Example /ee/ bee – might be two bumble bees.)
Extra tacks are there for students to hang their art.
Or display the main skill that you are working on for the day.

Lowercase letter g for girl, with braided long hair hanging down.

Some of my younger ESL students were confusing the hard and soft letter g sounds. This is actually very common because of the letter name influence.

The name of the letter G, does have a soft “j” sound and they can instantly relate the name and sound together. I like to correct them by reminding them that they are correct. Sometimes the letter G, does make the “j” sound but it also has a tricky first sound and that is the hard /g/ as in girl.

I created a sample drawing for them, where my girl had brown braided hair flowing down in the shape of a lowercase “g.” The other girls wanted to draw their own versions, adding colored hair, flowers, and crowns. We kept the pictures displayed for a while, and it actually helped some of the other intervention groups who were facing the same difficulty with the “g” sound.

If you don’t want to hand draw all the letters for the students you can print them out. It is very handy to have them ready ahead of time and add a word list on the back to inspire the art. This is my set for Long E.

These pre-made cards can be used to inspire the students with images that relate to the sounds that the letters make.

ch, wh, sh, Teaching Trick Digraphs

What to do with the pictures after they draw them?

After the lesson is over, I leave the pictures up for a while. Sometimes I have to take them down for the next group and replace them the next day. It depends on your classroom situation. I teach reading invention, in seven different groups a day.

Some of the groups began creating a sound notebook, gluing the pictures into it. This was a great way to keep the images and lessons organized together. If you think this would be helpful, I have a link to that resource.

two sounds of long u — vowel team digraph cards

Find this on TPT mnemonic images for sounds and spelling patterns.

Final /K/ Sound Games

Which to use ck, ke, or k for the final k sound?
These visuals are another way to remind students to look and listen for the vowel sounds and names.

Which to use ck, ke, or k for the final k sound?

Emergent readers often struggle with final k sounds and spellings, and rightly so. There is a lot to unpack here with these spelling rules and patterns.

They may start off well with phonics and individual letter sounds, they may transition to decoding CVC words, and then the rules seem to change overnight when they get to the final letter k sounds. They are often confused with the fact that ck, can make one sound. While other words can use only the letter k by itself, without the letter c. Then you add in the words that end with ke, for example the word: like, with a silent e. Bingo-bango we now have a student who is confused.

Final k sounds with a silent e

Yes, this does not happen every time but it did happen the other day on a spelling test in my class. One student started adding /cke/ to the end of the words. I think she was trying to cover all the possibilities for the final /k/ sound. I have seen this before with students who do not understand all the reasons for final silent e.

To help speed up this process, I have created a few games that I can play with the students that will help them practice some repeated reading of words that have the final /k/ sound. Grouping words together with similar spelling patterns often makes it easier for them to decode new words that they did not know they could read.

War-style educational games

They love these war-style games. To get extra use out of the game cards, I added beginning k sounds too. This is a bonus with hard c words all in the same resource.

It’s important to teach students that the really vowels matter a lot. Listening for the vowel sound or the vowel name can be the key to helping decide which final /k/ spelling to use.

If you hear the vowel sound before the final /k/ sound then use /ck/.
If you hear the vowel name before the final /k/ sound then it could be /ke/ or /k/.

Here are a few example words:

-ck ending: back, peck, dock, luck
-ke ending: bake, hike, coke, puke
-k ending: bank, pink, soak, park

The letters /ck/usually follow a very predictable pattern. It is sometimes called a short vowel pointer. Meaning it points backwards to the vowel that is making its short sounds, and the vowel is not saying its long name.

To help the students learn this skill of listening for the short vowel pointer, I also added some sound sorting cards to this game. These cards can be used as wildcards in the war game or used for sound sorting during a tutoring lesson.

Beginning c pattern: a, o, u. Beginning k pattern i, e, y.

These visuals are another way to remind students to look and listen for the vowel sounds and names.

Have Pure Joy Teaching

Silent Letter Bundle

This is a great money saving deal on this bundle of silent letter spelling resources.

Playing the game after the lesson is a great way for the information to sink in.

The lesson cards are grouped in silent letter patterns.

* Silent e is one of the most important ones!

The games can be played as Uno or War, kids love the Bomb card it is wild. It will always win in the war game, BOMB has a silent letter.

This bundle has lesson cards with word lists. Games to play or use as flashcards, and spelling clip cards for a fun way to test students.

Silent gh spelling bundle pure joy teaching
'

This is a great money-saving deal on this bundle of silent letter spelling resources.

Chef vs Magician, Sh Sound Spelling ci, ti, si, Card Games

Follow me on Facebook and TPT

You might also like the Final K sound game

Phonics Spelling Games Bundle Decodable Digraphs

Leveled educational intervention for the different structured literacy stages.

Lots of great phonics spelling games in one big bundle.

A fun way to learn spelling rules and reading flashcards in a game-style educational setting.

Great for leveled educational intervention for the different structured literacy stages. Easy to fit into your scope and sequence.

CVC, CVCC, Floss, R-controlled, CVCe, Long a, C+le, Many sounds of y, many spellings of sh, Many silent letters, syllables, vowel teams, many spellings of “ew/oo” and sight words.

Based on many familiar kids’ games: Uno, War, Old Man, Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Rummy, and some editable play cards. You must see, there is so much in this bundle.

Follow me on Facebook and TPT

You might also like the tricky Schwa sounds

Long Vowels Spelling Test Clip Card Bundle

Decodable game-style testing ay, ea, ei, e, i, -y, ey, igh, y_e, ie, ign, oa…..and more. Long a, e, i, o.

This is a great way to check on the student’s spelling without them knowing that they are being assessed for spelling. It works well in small groups and it is fun.

There are four sets of cards in this bundle.

You can get them here from TPT.

Find me on Facebook or follow me on TPT.

Which do I use letter C or the Letter K?

I remind them to listen for the vowels. If it is a, o, u, use c. If it is e or i, use the k.

Do your students ever ask you this question? Is it c or k?

Letter C or Letter K . Reminding the students to listen for the vowel sounds is great to figure it out. If the sound is: a, o, u, the use letter c.

If the vowel sound is: e or i, use the k.

This game is one way to let them read words that have the c and k spelling patterns.

Pure Joy Teaching – Find me on TPT or Facebook

Category: Mnemonics