Plural Ending Word Sorts

Word Sort 5
This week we worked on plural endings of words.  There were three main rules that the phonics book outlined for use. 
Rule 1:  If a word ends in ch, sh, s, or x you add es
Rule 2:  If a word ends in a consonant and y, change the y to i and add es.  If a word ends in a vowel and y, just add s.
Rule 3:  If a word ends in f or fe, you usually change the f or fe to v and add es.  If a word ends in ff, just add s.
The kids did really well with remembering these rules, but words that end in silent e really threw them off.  They would put words like place, pages, and badges in the es category instead of recognizing that the base word ends in silent e, so only an s is added to make it plural.  I tried to teach them to recognize the base word and then determine the ending, but they couldn't grasp it.  This leads me to think that I may need to go back and review vowel, consonant, e spelling patterns once again.  We have been doing these in our sorts for some time now, but I think they are used to seeing that e as a final letter and the s after it is what was confusing them. 
We had a snow day on Wednesday, so we combined two days worth of work into one.  Thursday when we did our partner sorts, we also recorded them in our word study notebooks.  The kids weren't going above and beyond like they did last week because we didn't have the time for it.  They still very much enjoyed working with a partner and helping their partner with the spelling patterns.  I like this partner activity in particular because it allows each partner to be successful even if the student doesn't have much knowledge on the words because he has the words right in front of him to refer to the spelling pattern to correct his partner if needed.  This really boosts self-esteem, which some of my students need in order to gain the confidence to be successful.  I have noticed that Emily has come a long way.  She used to be so cautious when she read for fear that she would read a word incorrectly.  Now, she has a much faster reading rate and reads more words correctly.  I would gather that these hands on phonics activities and confidence building collaborative learning play a big role in her improvement.  I also notice that Nate's reading fluency has much improved and I feel that he enjoys reading more now.  I will find out soon enough when I give the student progress and attitude surveys this week.