Short E Sound Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: RF.1.2.A

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

The short "e" sound can be found in words like men, rest, bed, and well. You can hear it, by saying the words aloud, the sound that the vowel makes is pronounced different from the way the vowel (letter) is naturally pronounced. That is what makes it a short vowel. Students will often confuse the sounds that short "i" and "e" make. The best way to work through this is with the help of listening worksheet activities. The more times that you listen and hear it, the better you will be able to recognize it when presented with it. These worksheets will help students recognize and pronounce words and phrases that possess a short "e".

Short E Sound Worksheets To Print:

How Many Sounds... - We work off of -et, -est, and -en. The -est suffix should be a breeze. How many terms of this tone can you make by adding letters to the beginning and or end of each set of letters below? Fill in as many as you can.

Shorty or Shortie? - The is a visual activity. Queen is a tough one for them. Say the name of each picture out loud.

E Banker - Read the words from the selection found within the box. Find the sets of terms that rhyme with the bolded word and write them on the lines. Think up your own set of terms that are not located in that bank already, for extra credit.

Finding It in Place - If you are in a rush, just circle the answers. We would appreciate that you take the time to write them.

Tape That... - It is either/or for this selection of different vocabulary. We are looking for matching pairs of words for this exercise.

Words to Search - The middle picture on the second row is referring to burger or hamburger. This is like a word search, but with pictures instead.

Guessing Game - It is where my father keeps his tools. It is where I keep my bicycle. What is it? This is an example question.

The Word Game - The pictures kind of give them away. You will need to unscramble all the terms that are indicated by the pictures.

Vowel Art - Can you think of four things whose name contains the short E sound? Draw a picture of each thing.

Match'em Up - Match each picture to the correct word. Guess what each of them have in common?

Egg Hunt - Color in all of the eggs that contain a word with the short E sound. You will need some bright colors.

Portrait of Short E - You are given six words to work with. Draw a picture of each thing. Then write its name on the line.

Read. Say. Color. - Read each word. Say it out loud. If you hear a short E sound, color in the picture.

Tonal Word Search - There are eight words in the puzzle that are of interest to you. Find each of them and write it on the line.

Listen for the Short E - Does it have the long or short E sound? Write the word in the correct box. You will need to listen carefully.

What Are Short E Sounds?


As the name suggests, short vowel sound words are the terms that do not let vowel to sound longer. For this reason when you get to the portion of the vowel tone in the word, it differs from the normal sound of the letter. The sounds from these terms are commonly used in daily life written and spoken content but many students are not able to identify such words. Given below are some techniques that will help one to locate short E sound words along with some of the examples of such words:


How to Locate Short E Sounds

An easy way to locate short E sound words is to look for such words that never start or end with letter E, but contain letter E in the word. For example, the term "elephant" is not an example of this as it is starting from letter E and the letter E is also sounding for a longer period. Another way to locate these types of tones is by their pronunciation while pronouncing short E words the tongue first moves forward to touch the frontal teeth and then immediately is lowered to touch the bottom teeth. So while pronouncing any word that contains letter E in middle, be careful as it can be a short E vowel sounding word.


Examples of These Types of Terms

There are about more than a hundred of short E sound words and it is not possible to list them in a single document. However, some of the most commonly used short E sound words are: pet, leg, wet, key, tea, end, fell, tell, bell sell, then, den, lend, bed, bend, get, set, bet, bear, yet, let, neck, heck, pen, pencil, red, men, hen, net, cent, jelly, smell, when, rent, steal, nest, vest, rest, test, web, west, chest, jet, ten, lemon, and many other similar words are also included in the list of short E sound words.


How to Teach This to Students

When you first begin to work on this area of phonics with your students, you should take into account their strengthens and weaknesses. Some classes are more visual, and others thrive in audible environment. While we cannot create a script for a lesson plan that would suit every possible situation, we surely can provide you with some great ideas and approaches to help you along.


I would encourage you to focus on a single vowel sound at a time. This way students are all headed in the right direction. Once you have covered all sides of the all the vowels, you can bring them into review mode with this area, but not until they have a good handle on each vowel group.


I find it often helpful for students to look in the mirror as they say words of the same sound group. It will help them watch how their tongue moves and how close their teeth are together for each of the sounds. I would also encourage you to always have a visual cue (picture) available for each and every term that you are asking them to dissect or pronounce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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