Ayeee, What's Up??

Rationale: This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ai = /A/. In order to be able to read, children must learn to recognize the spellings that map word pronunciations. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling ai. They will learn a meaningful representation (saying ayeee to someone you’re excited to see), they will spell and read words containing this spelling in a Letterbox lesson and read a decodable book that focuses on the correspondence ai = /A/.

​

Materials: Graphic image of a kid pointing finger guns; cover-up critter; whiteboard or smartboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual Elkonin boxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for the teacher: a, b, g, i, l, m, n, p, r, s, t; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: aim, sail, gain, bat, paint, strain; decodable text: James and the Good Day; worksheet (below)

​

Procedures:

1. Say: In order to become expert readers, we need to learn the code that tells us how to pronounce words. We have already learned to read short vowel words with a, like cat, and today we are going to learn about long A. Listen to how i right behind a makes a say its name. ai=/A/. When I say /A/ I think of getting excited to see a friend I have not seen in a while. I would say “Ayeeeee, what’s up pal!? [show graphic image].”

 

2. Say: Before we learn about the spelling of /A/, we need to listen for it in some words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and my lips turn up in a grin like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: tail. I heard a say its name and I felt my lips turn in a grin [point to lips turning up in a grin]. There is a long A in tail. Now I’m going to see if it’s in tall. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my lips didn’t turn up into a grin. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Ayeee!” and point your fingers like this [make finger guns to the side]. If you don’t hear /A/ give me a thumbs down. Is it in snap, rain, pants, train, mail, lap? [Have children point to their lips grinning when they hear /A/ say its name.]

 

3. Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we’ll learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letters ai tell me to say A’s name. [Write ai on the board]. What if I want to spell the word gain? “I need to gain a few more pounds to reach 60 lbs.” Gain in this sentence means to get more of. To spell gain in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /g//A//n/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /n/ so I’m going to put ai in the box right before the n. The word starts with /g/, so I need a g. Now it gets a little tricky so I’m going to say it slowly, /g//A//n/. I think I heard /A/ so I’ll put ai right after the g. I heard /n/ at the end, that’s n. [Point to letters in boxes when stretching out the word: /g//A//n/.]

 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. First we will start with two letterboxes and make the word aim. How did we learn to make the long A sound? [point with finger guns and say “aye”]. What should go in the first box? [Respond to children’s answers]. What goes in the second box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [Observe progress]. Now we will try another word. Listen for the beginning sound that goes in the first box.Then listen for /A/ and remember how we write it. The word is sail, I want to sail around the world; sail. [Allow children to spell words.]  Time to check your work. Watch how I spell it in my letterboxes on the board: s –a –i –l and see if you’ve spelled it the same way. Try another with three boxes: pair; I have a clean pair of socks. [Have volunteer spell it in the letterbox on the front board for children to check their work. Repeat this step for each new word.] Next word. Listen to see if this word has /A/ in it before you spell it: bat. I love the new baseball bat I got for Christmas. Did you need ai? Why not? Right, because we don’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a.  [volunteer spells it on the front board.] Now let’s try 4 phonemes. How many boxes do we need? Good! You need 4. Let’s try the word paint; Don’t touch the paint until it is dry. One more then we’re done with spelling, and this time you need five boxes: strain; If I pick up something too heavy, I will strain my muscles. Remember to stretch it out to get this tough word.

 

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled, but first I’ll show you how I would read a tough word. [Display poster with aim on the top and model reading the word.]  First I see a after i is in this word; that’s my signal that a will say its name /A/ [point with finger guns to the side]. I’m going to use a cover-up to get the first part. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] g=/g/. Now I’m going to blend that with /A/ = /gA/. Now I need to add in the last letter which is n, n=/n/. /gAn/.  Gain; that’s it.Now it’s your turn, everyone together.[Have children read words in unison. Afterwards, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

 

6. Great job working hard to read these words! You all have really learned a lot about the long A sound with ai! Now we are going to read a book called Todd the Mail Train. Todd is a big train and he carries lots of mail for people. Todd is trying very hard to reach a port called Dundee. There is not much time for Todd to get there! Will Todd make it in time? Let’s pair up and take turns reading Todd the Mail Train so we can find out what happens. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. (Have students read ending 2). After individual paired reading, the class rereads Todd the Mail Train aloud together and stops between page turns to discuss the plot.]

 

7. Say: “That was such good reading, class! That was a good story. What happened to Todd at the end? That’s right, Todd made it to deliver the mail! What did James have to do? Yes, he had to clean it all up. Good job. Before we finish this lesson, I want us to work on this worksheet to see how well we know ai words. This worksheet has pictures on them. I want you to first go through and circle the pictures that show words with the long A sound. Once you figure that out, I want you to write out each word on the other side of the page. Go back and check your answers to see if they make sense to you.” [teacher monitors work and grades worksheets for progress].

 

​

​

Resources:

A Beginning Reading Lesson, Gerri Murray, https://auburn.instructure.com/courses/1237469/files/?preview=156025907

​

Todd the Mail Train; https://www.speld-sa.org.au/images/readers/todd%20the%20mail%20train.pdf

​

Worksheet based on this example: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tes.com%2Fteaching-resource%2F-ai-words-worksheet-6359167&psig=AOvVaw11lVXWsPzXHaByHPC8qDYY&ust=1583201266196000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPCahLPa-ucCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAI