Drop the E and Add an Ending

Before each word, ask your child to look at the last letters of the base word and name the rule. Do the dropping the e and doubling pages on different days, since mixing them is the hard part. Check with the answer key.

Drop the silent e before adding ed or ing and circle the correct spellings. When a base word ends in a silent e, drop the e before you add an ending that starts with a vowel (a, e, i, o or u), like ed or ing. The directions on the page read: Read the rule and the example. Then, do parts A, B and C. The page opens with a worked example, and the answer key shows every answer.

Yes, both. We made it for 3rd Grade spelling, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with adding endings. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Three rules cover most words: drop a silent e before an ending that starts with a vowel (bake, baking), double the last consonant after one short vowel (stop, stopped), and change a consonant plus y to i before es (city, cities). Words like play and jump just add the ending.

When a short word ends in one vowel and then one consonant, like hop or plan. Never double w, x or y, and do not double when there are two vowels, as in rain.

When a consonant comes before the y, as in pony and berry. When a vowel comes before it, as in toy or key, just add s.

Yes. All four sheets have an answer key that shows every spelling, so a parent or teacher can check the work in a minute.

3rd graders spell long vowels and vowel teams (rain, team, boat), r-controlled vowels (star, fork, bird), common homophones, and words with endings, where the rules for dropping a silent e, doubling a consonant and changing y to i come in (CCSS L.3.2.E and L.3.2.F). Silent letters in words like knee and write round out the year.

Double the last consonant when a one-syllable word ends in one short vowel and one consonant: hop becomes hopping and sit becomes sitting. Words with two vowels or a final e do not double: rain becomes raining and hope becomes hoping. The adding endings pages practice all three rules.

Start with long vowels and vowel teams, since they are the most common patterns, then r-controlled vowels. Move to adding endings once those feel easy, and use the homophone and silent letter pages as review. Each subtopic on this page holds four sheets.