October 3, 2011
Dear Parents,
The following serves as a guide for Unit 4 Fundations instruction and can be
utilized in conjunction with the Fundations skill sets that are being taught in class.
The exercises on the back of this page, are meant to be done at home for extra practice
and do not need to return to school. The Unit 4 assessment will be held on Friday,
October 14. Feel free to email your child’s teacher with any questions.
Thank you in advance.
Exceptions to the vowel-consonant-e syllable.
Consider the following:
1. This exception, -ive, can also be a suffix.
2. It is pronounced with a short i sound /iv/, instead of the expected long sound.
3. The e is added because words in the English language never end with the letter v.
Examples:
give
olive
active
inventive
Adding suffixes to vowel-consonant-e syllables
Consider the following:
1. when adding a consonant suffix to a word that ends in a silent e, simply add the
suffix.
2. If the suffix begins with a vowel, drop the e and add the suffix
Examples:
safe + ly =safely
reptile + s = reptiles
confuse + ing = confusing
At Home Practice
Have your scholar do the following activities with the list of words provided below:

Underline the baseword and circle the suffix

Show is a silent e was deleted by adding an e insert.

Put a star above a consonant if it was added to the baseword before adding the suffix.
Practice Word list
benches
snakes
moping
strongest
canes
sitting
rose
competed
griped
athlete
mistaken
cutter
confuse
smoky
robbed
expansive
safely
sledding
instinctive
dislikable
Trick Words
move
school
Sound Alike Words
mail
male
mind
Sentences for dictation
Jake fell on the pavement and scraped his leg.
The fireman was quickly splitting the logs.
Jane tapped on the drums.
The canned grapes will be stored in the basement.
mined
find
fined
Name: __________________________________________________________
4.1
“Find the Exceptions” Activity
Have your child circle the words containing an exception to the vowel-consonant-e syllable and cross out
any word that are not exceptions.
choke
olive
exhale
have
those
massive
reptile
expensive
base
active
give
captive
bake
hopeless
instinctive
Have your child write the exceptions to the vowel-consonant-e syllable from above on the lines below
Remember…….
One syllable words ending in -ve and words ending in the syllable -ive are exceptions to the vowelconsonant-e syllable because the vowel preceding the consonant is not pronounced as a long vowel
It always has only three letters: a vowel, then a consonant, and lastly a silent e
Name: __________________________________________________________
4.2
“Read, write, mark” Activity
Have your child read the following words, copy them on the line and mark up the syllables.
olive
dislikable
_________________
captive
__________________
_________________ pavement __________________
capes
_________________
umpires
__________________
rules
________________
tadpoles
__________________
active
__________________
expensive _________________
smoky
_________________ shameful __________________
ninety
_________________
voter
__________________
massive
_________________ cupcakes __________________
broken
__________________ escaping __________________
wisest
__________________
likable
__________________
Name: __________________________________________________________
4.3
“Read and write” Activity
Have your child read the following words, add the suffix, and copy the correctly spelled word on the line.
Types of syllables:
open, closed, vowel-consonant-e, r controlled syllable, double vowel syllable
hope+s
tap+ing
hope+ful
gripe+ing
hope+ing
grip+ing
confuse+ed
give+s
confuse+ing
give+ing
tape+ing
hop+ing
Remember…….
When a suffix begins with a vowel (ex: ing, ed), the silent e must be dropped before adding the suffix.
In cases where the suffix begins with a vowel (ex: ing, ed) and the dropping the silent e produces a
different word (tape/tap), the long vowel word drops the e and adds the suffix (ex: taping). The short
vowel word doubles the final consonant before adding the suffix (ex: tapping).
Name: __________________________________________________________
4.4
Sound Alike Sentences
Read the sentences with your child. Have your child choose the sound-alike word that makes sense in the
context of the sentence.
1.He (hoped/hopped) to get that in the mail.
2.Will all the (mails/males) stand up?
3.Mom asked me to get the (mail/male).
4.Was it a (mail/male) riding that bike?
5.What is on your (mind/mined)?
6.They (mind/mined) gold in the west.
7.The kids safely (mind/mined) for rocks.
8.Dad was (find/fined) for driving fast.
9.Did you (find/fined) the missing bike?
10.Mom was (moping/mopping) the floor.
11.I was (hoping/hopping) for a snow day.
12.The dancer (taped/tapped) her way off
stage.