Cheese, meat, beans, bread — hey, Letter E, what else is supposed to go in this soup?
Ten eggs. OK. Cheese, meat, beans, bread, 10 eggs. What else? Beets? OK. Cheese, meat,
beans, bread, 10 eggs, beets. What else? Peas? Cheese, meat, beans, 10 eggs, bread, beets,
peas. Next? An eel? Wait a second, Letter E. Do these things even go together? Meat
and beans and cheese? Hey! Are we just making a soup filled with food that has the letter
E? Sneaky, sneaky.
Letter E was trying to get me to make a soup with food that has the letter E. Let's learn
more about letter E before we decide about this soup. I bet you remember that vowels
can say their letter names. Letter names are long sounds. This is the letter E. This letter
can say its letter name to make a long sound E. We call this sound long E. Practice making
the long E sound. Can you make the sound with me? E [long E sound]! E! E!
We open our mouth really wide like we're smiling for the camera.
Say, "Cheese!"
Cheese [emphasizes long E sound]!
Cheese [emphasizes long E sound]! [camera snaps]
Can you think of any words with the long E sound in them?
E [long E sound]. E [long E sound].
How about eagle? Say it with me. Eagle. Do you hear the long E sound at the beginning
of the word? E. I don't want an eagle in my soup. How about eel? Do you hear the long
E sound at the beginning? Eel. Long E can also come at the end of words. How about the
word tree? Tree. Do you see how my mouth smiles at the end, just like we're saying, "Cheese"
for the camera? [camera snaps] Tree. How about bee? Bee.
Long E can be found in the middle of words too. Oh, like the word
deer. Say it with me.
Deer. Do you hear the E sound in the middle? I know you see my big smile when I make the
long E sound. Deer [emphasizes long E sound]. What other words have the long E sound in the middle?
Hm. Wheel, meat, leaf, seal, beach, beans.
Beans would be okay in our soup, I think.
Vowels can say their names to make their long sounds, but they can make short
sounds too. We know that the long E sound is E [long E sound]. Do you know the short
sound for this letter? Short E makes the sound E [short E sound]. Make the sound with me.
E. E.
When I make this sound, I think of those ten eggs. We know that E [short E] is a vowel sound
because the sound is coming from the middle of our mouth. But let's take a closer
look at how to make this sound. Do you remember short I? I [short I sound]? I? I?
That sound was almost entirely closed or zipped up. For short A, we opened our mouth big enough
to take a bite of an apple [repeats short A sound]. For the short E sound, my mouth
is open a bit more than it was when we made the short zip [repeats short I] sound but
not open enough to take a bite of an apple [repeats short A sound]. It's right in the
middle. E [short E sound]. E. E.
Practice making the sound with me. E [short E sound]. E. E.
The sound E [short E sound] reminds me of Goldilocks. Short I is too small. I [short
I sound]. I. I.
Short A is too big. A [short A sound]. A. A.
But E [short E sound], E, E, in the middle is just right. Good idea, Goldilocks! I wonder
if we could make porridge instead of that soup.
So, can you think of any words with the short E sound? E [short E sound]. Hm. How about
those 10 eggs [emphasizes short E sound]? Do you hear the short E sound at the beginning
of the word? Eggs. Say it with me. Eggs. What's another word with short E at the beginning?
E. E. E. Elephant!
Say it with me. Elephant. Short E isn't always at the beginning of words. It can be found
in the middle of words too. Oh! Like the word chef. I'm being a chef today. Say it with
me. Chef. Do you hear the E [short E] sound in the middle? What about bread? Do you hear
the E [short E] sound in the middle? Bread. That could go well with our cheese! What other
words have the short E sound in the middle? Hm. Desk, sled, tent, well, bell, vest.
Let's practice making our long E and short E sounds. I'm going to make the sound three times.
Then, you can make the sound three times. Let's do long E first.
E [long E sound]. E. E.
Keep repeating after me. E. E. E. Nice job! How about short E? Repeat after me.
E [short E sound]. E. E.
Keep repeating after me. E. E. E.
When we start reading we have to remember that when we see the letter E it could be
making its long E — E [long E]— sound but it could also be making its short E
— E [short E]— sound. Let's practice saying words and listening to sounds so we can hear
the difference. I'll show you a picture. You can say the word. Let's do this one first.
Hm. What are they? Seeds! What sound do you hear? Long E or short E? Say it with me. Seeds.
E [long E sound]. That's long E. Remember? It's like we're saying "cheese" for the camera.
Seeds, cheese... [camera snap] What about chest? Chest. Do you hear long E or short E?
Chest. E [short E sound]. That's short E. Remember Goldilocks? Our mouth isn't zipped
up like I [short I sound], but it isn't open enough for an apple like A [short A sound], either.
It's right in the middle. E [short E sound]. E. E.
Let's practice with some more words.
Teeth.
That's long E. E [long E sound].
Belt.
That's short E. E [short E sound]. E. E.
Peach.
That's long E. E [long E sound].
Shell.
That's short E. E [short E sound]. E. E.
Sleep.
That's long E. E [long E sound].
Hen.
That's short E. E [short E sound]. E. E.
Sheep.
That's long E. E [long E sound].
Fence.
That's short E. E [short E sound]. E. E.
Web.
That's short E. E [short E sound]. E. E.
Geese!
That's long E. E [long E sound].
Nest.
That's short E. E [short E sound]. E. E.
We learned that letter E can make a long sound like the E in cheese, or a short sound like
the E in bread. So come here, Letter E. Letter E, let's forget about your sneaky soup and
just have some cheese and bread. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy [emphasizes long E sound].
Keep practicing these two sounds and keep an ear out for any E [long E] or E [short E] sounds you hear.
And don't forget [emphasizes short E sound] to always be clever [emphasizes short E sound].