As your students continue working on phonics skills to improve reading and spelling you will get to ie words. This combination of a hands-on sorting ie word activity with cut and paste ie words worksheet is great reinforcement. Simply print the ie words phonics worksheet and you are ready to play and learn with kindergarten, first grade, and 2nd graders too. 
ie Words
This month, my little girl has been working on two new sounds. Unfortunately, both are spelled “ie”. Most of us have heard the saying, “I before e except after c.” But what we are learning is that those two letters make two different sounds. And to become a good reader, you have to know when and how to use them. Learning ie words is importang for kindergartners, grade 1, and grade 2 students, so I created an “ie” word sort with a free printable ie words worksheet.
ie Words Worksheet
Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >>_____<<. The ie words phonics worksheet pdf file will open in a new window for you to save your freebie.
Rules for “ie”
The two letters “ie” can make two different sounds, and they are both long vowel sounds. Sometimes, they make the “long i” sound, but in other words, you hear the long e sound.
Long i
When you see the letter “ie” at the end of a root word, generally they make the “long i” sound. Think about words like pie, lie, and tie.
Also, they show up when a root word that ends with a y (making the long i sound) has a suffix added to it. For example, the root word cry is changed to cries when we add the s. The “y” is dropped and the “ie” takes the place. The “y” and the “ie” make the “long i” sound.
Long e
Now for how these two little letters make the long e sound.
We first see the “long e” occur when it is in the middle root word. And it occurs the most often when that root word ends in ld, f, or ve. You have heard that “long e” sound in words like grief, piece, and shield.
And there is one more way and I think this is the most confusing for our little ones. When “ie” is a suffix (easily confused with dropping the y and adding a suffix), the “ie” makes that the “long e” sound. Not to make you hungry, but cookie and brownie are great examples.
ie Worksheets for kindergarten
This simple activity gets children reading words that have “ie” in them, but make both sounds. Before I did this activity, we had already spent a week working on the “long i” sound, and then a week working on the long e sound. Only after spending two weeks on them separately, did I attempt this.
On the paper they are to glue the words, there is a picture of a whole pie and a piece of pie. The students are to read each word and decide if the word makes the “long e” or “long i” sound. If it is the “long i” sound they place the word under the whole pie. If it makes the “long e” sound, they place it under the piece of pie.
It is that easy. OUr kiddos get to work on combining the skills they learned before trying to read them in books.
Vowels Printables
looking for more fun vowel activities and resources to make learning to read and spell words fun? Check these out!
- Missing Vowels Clip Cards are a fun way for kindergartners and first grade students to practice adding in the missing vowel sounds
- Practice adding short and long vowels to word with these no-prep Vowels Worksheets
- Practice matching vowels sounds to clipart with these puzzles featuring Kindergarten Vowels
- Make practicing FUN with this cute short vowel games or use this long vowel games
- Grab these super cute CVC word puzzles free printable
- Handy Long Vowel Sounds Worksheets
- MIssing Sound Clip Cards Vowel Activities
- Long ee Words BINGO – Vowel Teams Game
- Practice adding short a words with this cut and paste activity for kids
- Long a vowel clip cards
- Short e words printable book for practicing adding the e vowel
- Cut and Paste short i words mini book
- Short i words Printable sight word reader for kids to practice reading short i words
- Cute Bunny Short i words puzzles are a fun way for kids to practice listening for the short i sound in words this spring!
- Work on short o words with this cut and paste booklet for kids to read, build, and write
- Cut and paste short u cvc words printable book for practicing adding the u vowel
- Printable vowel activities for kindergarten
- Irregular Vowels Activity with Verb Sliders
- See all our Vowels activities here
Blends Activities
Looking for more blends activities for young learners? You will love these resources:
- Final Consonant Ending Blends Games
- Ending s Blends worksheets with do a dot markers
- Practice Consonant Blends with cute printable puzzles
- Slide and Read Blends Activity
- Beginning Blends Fall Activities for 1st Grade
- Blue Bird Sorting Blends Activity
- Read and Color Ending Blends Worksheets
- Mitten Initial Blends Winter Activities for 1st Grade
- Initial Blends Matching Game for kids
- Do a Dot Ending Blends Worksheet
- Ending Blends Bingo Dauber Worksheets
- Ch, Sh, Th Digraph Game
- Read and Clip Consonant Blends Activities
- Handy L Blends Worksheets with magenetic letters
- Graph a Blends Activities for 2nd graders
- Floss Rule Worksheets
- Free Printable Color by Blend Worksheet
- Ending S Blends Clip Cards
- Printable nk Ending Blends Clip Cards
- NG Words for Kids Game
- BIngo Dabber ng and nk worksheets
- Th Worksheets – Read th blends in sentences
- R Controlled Vowel Worksheets
- Free printable Blends Worksheets with dot markers
- Practice ed Endings with Free Printable BINGO Game
- FREE Printable ed Endings Worksheets
- Learn about the Three Sounds of Ed with these handy free phonics worksheets
Language Arts Activities for Kids
- Cars Punctuation Games
- Cut and Paste Sentences Worksheets
- Connect 4 Spelling Practice Worksheets – work with any list!
- Free Writing Prompts – LOTS for elementary age students with rules lines, creative prompt calendars, and more!
- Detective Themed Dictionary Skills Worksheets
- Band Aid Contraction Game
- Minion Contraction Games
- Contraction Bingo Game
- Doctor Contraction Words Game
- Synonym Puzzles for Kids
- Printable Homograph Games
- FREE Animal Antonyms Puzzles
- Contraction Dominoes
- Dinosaur Bones Punctuation Game
- Hershey Kiss Word Family Activities
- Ice Cream Word Endings Game
- Marshmallow Incident’s Noun and Verb Games Printable
- Free Spelling Dictionary
- Or learn about parts of speech with Taboo Grammar Game
- Practice Building Sentences with this Pizza Parlor Activity
- Parts of Speech BINGO – practice with noun, verb, adverb, adjectives, and more!
- Free Reading Log Printables – including Cars, Frozen, summer, and so many more!
- S’more Complete Sentences Game
- Solve it! Parts of Speech Games Printable
- Pizza Parlor Sentence Building Games
- Free Book Report Template
ie Words Phonics List
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Excellent word sort! Do you have a sort for the various sounds of “ea”? Thank you!