Write the Word: Only the Rule Letters Are Given

The base page turned inside out: on this 2nd grade write-the-word sheet only the rule letters are printed, in orange, and every other letter is an empty box. The Magic e version shown keeps the rule box with its four chips and the models cake and kite, then gives eight cards in two columns — a wave, a gate, a whale, a rake, a pancake, a pinecone, a lime and a roll of tape — each with a row of dashed boxes in which the vowel and the final e stand printed: _ a _ e for gate, _ _ a _ e for whale, _ _ _ _ a _ e for pancake. The child says the picture word and writes all the other letters into the boxes.

Anchoring the rule letters and asking for the rest reverses the demand of the base page, and the reversal matters for a rule like magic e: the child is shown that the a and the e belong together and has to build the consonants around them, which is how the split pattern is held in mind when reading. The number of boxes tells the child how long the word is, so pancake and pinecone are not guesses. Words run to eight letters on this face, a little shorter than the base so the boxes stay large.

Print it at the end of a rule's week, after the base and rule detective pages, as the page where the child writes the most. A rule that has no letter pair, such as magic e, uses this face and the detective face; the pair rules add which-one and sort. One sheet in portrait with a pencil.