Teaching long vowels involves hearing, reading, and spelling words with lots of different spelling patterns. Teaching long ‘e’ words (like meet and beach) means teaching students the many ways long ‘e’ is spelled.
Grab our free printable long ‘e’ word list and cards. Then try some of the activities below to teach all the ways we read long ‘e.’
Teaching Long ‘E’
Start with words that have an ‘e-e’ pattern (eve, these). That’s a long-vowel pattern students will probably already be familiar with from other long-vowel words. Then, progress to other common spellings, like ‘ee’ (meet, street) and ‘ea’ (beach, reach). Once students are solid with those patterns, introduce ‘ei’ (protein), ‘ie’ (piece), and ‘ey’ and ‘y’ at the end of a word (honey, candy). And when students learn multiple-syllable word patterns, they’ll learn that open syllables have long-vowel sounds as well.
Long ‘e’ patterns:
- ‘e-e’ as in gene and here
- ‘ee’ as in see and three
- ‘ea’ as in eat and bleach
- ‘y’ as in candy and fuzzy
- ‘ei’ as in ceiling and conceit
- ‘ey’ as in key and chimney
- ‘ie’ as in chief and brief
Check out our list of long ‘e’ words and activities you can use to teach them.
Long ‘E’ Words
E-E Words
These are words that have the ‘e-e’ pattern. The ‘e’ at the end of the word makes the first letter ‘e’ say its name, or make the long ‘e’ sound:
complete, concede, delete, eve, extreme, gene, here, precede, scene, theme, these
EE Words
asleep, bee, beef, cheese, creep, coffee, feed, feet, fleece, free, freeze, green, geese, keep, knee, meet, need, needle, peel, peep, queen, reef, see, seek, seem, sheep, sheet, sleep, speech, sweet, teen, teeth, three, wheel
EA Words
beach, bead, beam, bean, beast, beaver, cream, dream, eagle, eat, feat, feast, grease, jeans, leaf, leash, least, meal, meat, pea, peace, plead, please, reach, sea, seam, steal, steam, tea, teach, team, tease, weak, wreath
-y Words
baby, brainy, candy, chilly, copy, dusty, empty, every, ferry, fifty, funny, pretty, puppy, silly, sunny, twenty, windy, worry
IE Words
chief, belief, believe, brief, field, fierce, grief, niece, piece, retrieve, thief, yield
EI Words
caffeine, ceiling, conceit, deceive, either, protein, receipt, receive
EY Words
chimney, honey, key, money, monkey, parsley, pulley, turkey, valley
Open-Syllable Words
These words have a long-vowel sound because they have an open syllable.
be, ego, Egypt, equal, even, evil, he, me, recess, she, vegan, veto, we
Learn more: Open and Closed Syllable Words and Activities
How To Use the Word Lists and Cards
The first thing to do when teaching vowel patterns is to point out the letters and patterns that make the long ‘e’ sound. Create reference words for each spelling pattern. This gives students a source to think about when they’re figuring out how to spell new words. So, if you teach them ‘ea’ says long ‘e’ as in beach, you can prompt them to spell the vowel sound in bean like they would in the word beach.
Listen for Long ‘E’
Read words that do and do not have long ‘e.’ Have students raise their hand if they hear a long ‘e’ sound. This builds students’ phonemic awareness, or ability to hear sounds in words.
Hear and Write
Read words aloud and have students write the words. This activity, which engages kids’ ability to link letters and sounds, helps students build their memory of letters and sounds. The process is pretty simple: Say the word, help students hear and write each sound, then read the word again.
Word Sort
Use the cards to sort words according to long ‘e’ spelling patterns. Start with “ee” and “ea” words, then build to more complicated spelling patterns and longer word lists.
‘-y’ Word Sort
Help students practice with words that have similar spelling patterns but that “say” different sounds. For example, words that have ‘y’ at the end sometimes say long ‘e’ and sometimes say long ‘i.’ Teach students that ‘y’ makes the long ‘e’ sound when the word has more than one syllable, like funny or silly. ‘Y’ makes the long ‘i’ sound when a word only has one syllable, as in cry or why. With that knowledge, have students sort words that end in ‘y.’
I Spy
Display the word cards. Say a word or say the meaning of a word and have students “spy” the correct word in the display. You can also divide students into teams and give each team a magnifying glass to turn this game into a relay.
Feed the Monster
Make a set of “monsters” out of empty tissue boxes. Put a spelling pattern on each monster. Then, have students feed the word cards to the correct monster. (The “ea” words go in the “ea” monster, the “ee” words go in the “ee” monster.)
Follow the Path
Create a word path with cards from one end of a table to another. Have students role a di and move a game piece that many cards. They read the word on each card to move ahead.
Pool Noodle Phonics
Create a pool noodle spelling activity by cutting up pool noodles and writing letters on them. Either read a word or give students word cards. They use the pool noodle letters to create and read the word. Students can also work in pairs where one reads a word and the other creates it.
Learn more: Pool Noodle Phonics
Memory
It’s a classic game. Put the cards face down. Have students choose two words at a time. If the long ‘e’ spelling patterns match (beach and reach, or feet and sheet), they keep the pair. At the end of the game, have each student read out the words they collected.
Long ‘E’ Stories
Use a long ‘e’ word to inspire stories that use as many long ‘e’ words as possible. Encourage students to use the words in the list, names, and words they make up. “Two creatures on a beach eating a peach,” for example.
Get Your List of Long ‘E’ Words
Print copies of the word list and cards to keep on hand for spelling lists, teaching examples, and for games and activities like the ones above.
