Grade 4 Phonics, Decoding & Spelling Patterns: Silent Letters: bt
216 printable 4th Grade phonics worksheets on Silent Letters: bt. 6 activity types: Crack the Code, Lesson, Read and Draw, Roll and Read. The first three are free to download; All Access opens all 216.
Practice pages support a program; they are not the lesson. These sheets reinforce Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency — Grade 4, the complete K–5 reading curriculum from Faith Readers. See every program →
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Includes 6 activity types: Crack the Code, Lesson, Read and Draw, Roll and Read, Sentence Scramble, Word Search.
Teaching Silent Letters: bt
What it is
In a small set of words the b before t is silent: doubt, doubtful, debt, debtor, subtle. In obtain, obtuse, and subtext the same b before t is clearly spoken, so it cannot simply be skipped wherever it appears.
When a child is ready
Teach it after silent b in mb, when the child is reading longer words and can hold a short exception list.
If they struggle
For spelling, say doubt beside dubious and debt beside debit, where the b is heard, so the silent letter has a reason attached to it instead of being one more thing to remember. For reading, have the child check the word against the short silent-bt list first, since obtain and subtext look the same and do say the b.
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