These reading rods are great for introducing Silent E to young readers. Once your child has mastered reading the three-letter Phonetic Reading Blocks by Quality Montessori, introduce these Silent E blocks. Your child will love twisting the end block to reveal and hide the Silent E to create words with both short and long vowel sounds. Easy to use, first show the child a 3 letter phonetic word of your choice. Have the child read the word. Then, twist the block so that the "e" appears at the end of the word. Explain to the child that in this word, the "e" does not make a sound, but it does have a job. Tell the child that the "e" makes the vowel say it's name. For example: man becomes mane, fad becomes fade and so on. Practice reading the new word together. Show the child another word with the same vowel. Continue reading words in this manner, helping when necessary and eventually moving on to other vowels. The blocks allow practice with all 5 vowel sounds plus 12 different consonants and 1 phonogram. Each rod includes 4 phonetic words + 4 silent E words, giving your reader a total of 40 words to read over and over. All words are in the dictionary. A fun tool to strengthen and improve your child's self-confidence with reading and use of long vowel sounds. Made to replace or compliment your Montessori Silent E Word Cards. The letters are written in lower case d'nealian print with red consonants and blue vowels, in order to match the rest of your Montessori Language materials.