I call these words magic e words, but really they are ordinary consonant-vowel-consonant words with -e at the end. Learning vowel patterns can be very challenging even for kids that have been reading for years, because they make different sounds in different words. Vowels can either make a short sound such as /a/ in cat, or a long sound such as /a/ in bake. Readers must decide which sound to make when reading vowels so teaching this neat trick will help determine which sound to use.