State the Objective

Tell the children that they will make cute cake shapes and that they will read and write silent-e words, such as cake, bite, cute, face, shape, and plate.

Literacy Activities

Introduce target words

• Show the children the silent-e target words.
• Read the words with the children.
• Read the A Bit of a Bite of Cake target text (see below) and the A Mud Cake target text (see below) with the children and let them underline the silent-e words.

Cut cute cake shapes

• Have the children draw a cake in a silent-e shape (e.g., kite, cane, cube, face).
• Let the children cut out their cake shapes and label them (e.g., Kite Cake, Cane Cake, Cube Cake, Face Cake).
• Allow the children to pretend to take bites of the cakes.

Make a mud cake

• Read the A Mud Cake target text (see below) with the children.
• Read A Mud Cake, by Brenda Nelson, with the children (optional).
• Make and bring a mud cake (optional) to show to the children.
• Model making a pretend mud cake (i.e., make gestures, pack the mud together in a mold (e.g., box or cake pan), pretend to put it in the oven, cut it up).
• Have the children pretend to make a mud cake.

Write words from dictation

• Help the children write words from dictation to contrast short-vowel versus long-vowel pairs.
  • mad and made
  • cut and cute
  • kit and kite
  • cub and cube
  • bit and bite

Contrast the number of letters and sounds

• List silent-e target words (e.g., cake, bite, cute, face, shape, plate).
• Have the children write silent-e words (e.g., cake, bite, made, make, cute, face, plate).
• Show a word and ask:
  • How many letters does it have? (e.g., four, c + a + k + e)
  • How many sounds does it have? (e.g., three, c + ā + k)