Follow ai Over The Rainbow!

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 (ai crossing the rainbow), 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/.

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Materials: Graphic image of the rainbow with ai cloud (pictured above); cover-up critter, whiteboard or Elkonin boxes for modeling and individual. Elkonin letterboxes for each student; letter manipulatives for each child and magnetic or smartboard letters for the teacher: a, i, d,m,n,p,w,t,c,l,f,s,r; list of spelling words on poster or whiteboard to read: aid, main, paid, wait, claim, plain, faint, and waist, drait; decodable text and assessment worksheet. 

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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 one way that long A partners up with i and says its name, /A/. When I say /A/ I think of the ai getting ready to cross a rainbow [show graphic image]. Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we will learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letter a and partner i to tell me to say A’s name. [write ai on the board.]

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 ai say long A’s name /A/ and my lips slightly open and my jaw slightly forward like this. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: gain. I heard ai make its long A name and I felt my lips slightly open and jaw move slightly forward. There is ai in gain. Now I’m going to see if it’s in rat. Hmm, I didn’t have the same mouth movement. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “ai is over the rainbow!” If you don’t hear /A/ say, “that’s not it.” Is it in cut, pain, rat, raid, hit, aim, bait? [have children point to their mouth when they feel /A/ say its name.]

3. What if I want to spell the word faith? “I have faith I will do good on my test.” Faith means confidence in this sentence. To spell faith in letterboxes, I first need to know how many phonemes I have in the word, so I stretch it out and count: /f//ai//th/. I need 3 boxes. I heard that /A/ just before the /th/ so I am going to put both a and I together in the 2ndbox. The word starts with /f/, so I know to put f in the first box. Now my only phoneme left is /th/ and I only have one box left, so I know that t and h go together in the last letterbox. 

4. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for aid. An aid is a help or assistant, “my teacher has an aid to help her get things done.” Did you remember that a and I go together in one box? I’ll check your spelling while I walk around the room. [observe progress.] You’ll need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen for the beginning sound to spell in the first box, then listen for /A/ and don’t forget the I that helps a say its name. Here is the word: main. Chicken will be served as the main dish; main. [Allow children to spell remaining words, giving sentences for each word: paid, wait, claim, plain, faint, and waist].

5. Say: Now I am going to let you read the words you’ve spelled. [Show the words aid, main, paid, wait, claim, plain, faint, and waist. Pseudoword drait. Have children read words in unison. Afterward, call on individuals to read one word on the list until everyone has had a turn.]

6.  Say: You have done a great job reading words with our new spelling for /A/: ai. Now we are going to read a book called The Train Ride. This is a story about a girl named Gail who goes on a train ride. On the train ride, Gail sees many different things and wonders what they are. Let’s pair up in teams and take turns reading The Train Ride to see what Gail finds on her train ride. [Children pair up and take turns reading alternate pages each while the teacher walks around the room monitoring progress. After individual paired reading, the class rereads The Train Ride chorally, stopping between page turns to discuss the story.

7.  Say: Before we finish up with our lesson about one way to spell /A/ = ai, I want to see how you can solve a reading problem. On this worksheet, we have some sentences with words missing.  Your job is to look in the box of word choices and decide which ai word fits best to complete the sentence. First, try reading all the words in the box, then choose the word that fits best in the space. Reread your answers to see if they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate individual child progress.]

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Resources:

Murray,G.“Oh, I didn’t know!”

 https://murraba.wixsite.com/readinglessons/beginning-readingLinks to an external site.

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Brittany Marker (2017). The Train Ride. https://readingelephant.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/TheTrainRide.pdf

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Assessment worksheet: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/phonics-worksheets-ai-and-ay-sounds-7081731