5th Grade Decoding/ Word Attack
Silent Letters
Lesson 23
Look at these words:
whistle
assign
kneel
Look at these words:
whistle
assign
kneel
Did you notice that in the words above the
letter that is underlined is silent? In some
words, some consonants are silent.
With your partner, read each of the words
below. Identify the silent consonant(s) and
decide where it belongs in the chart below.
science, crumb, lightning, numb, fighting, knead, autumn, know,
column, scenery
Silent Letters in Consonant Pairs
silent c
silent gh
silent k
silent b
silent n
science
lightning
knead
crumb
autumn
scenery
fighting
know
numb
column
Independent Practice
With your partner look through your science or
social studies book for three other examples of
words with silent consonants. Take turns saying
the words. While one partner speaks, the other
partner tells which letter or letters are silent and
writes the word correctly on a sheet of paper.
When you are finished, have your partner check
your paper.