Beginning Reading

Ay! It is Time to Board the Train!

 

Rationale

This lesson teaches children about the long vowel correspondence ai= /A/.

It is very important for children to master the spellings that map word pronunciation in order to be able to read. In this lesson children will learn to recognize, spell, and read words containing the spelling ai. They learn meaningful representation (Conductor yelling Ay!), 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

• Printed or electronic images of train conductor

• cover-up critter

• Whiteboard Elkonin boxes for modeling and magnetic letters

• Letterboxes and letter manipulatives for each student

• Letters: s, t, a, i, n, m, p, d, l, r, w

• List of spelling words

• Poster with letterbox words to read (aim, stain, paid, waist, sprain)

• Decodable texts (attached below)

• Assessment worksheet

 

Procedures

• Say: We need to learn the secret code in the alphabet that will help us become expert readers. We have already learned the short a, like cat, and today we are going to learn another sound A makes. The letter A says its name, /A/ when it is in front of an i. When I say /A/ I think of a train conductor trying to get our attention so he yells “Ay! It’s time to board the train!” [Show image].

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• Say: Before we learn how to spell words that say /A/, we need to hear and recognize that sound in words. When I listen for /A/ in words, I hear a say its name /A/ and my mouth opens wide like I am smiling. [Make vocal gesture for /A/.] I’ll show you first: rain. I heard a say its name, and I felt my mouth stretch wide. [Point to wide mouth and raised cheeks]. There is a long A in rain. Now I’m going to see if it’s in drum. Hmm, I didn’t hear a say its name and my mouth opened from top to bottom not wide towards my ears. Now you try. If you hear /A/ say, “Ay! It’s time to board the train!”  If you don’t hear /A/, say, “Nope, not this time.” Is it in grain, price, spray, snail, spoon, and grape? [ Have students point to their wide mouth and raised cheeks when they feel a say its name.]

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• Say: Now let’s look at the spelling of /A/ that we will learn today. One way to spell /A/ is with the letters a and i together. [write ai on the board.] A and i are buddies that stick together in some words. A is the boss so it always goes first and it gets to say its name while i stays silent. Let’s try the word stain. “I have a stain on my shirt because I dropped my chocolate ice cream.” A stain is a dirty spot on your clothes that you can’t get out. To spell stain in letterboxes, first I need to know how many phonemes I have in the word so I stretch it out and count: /s//t//A//n/. I need 4 letter boxes. [Get out 4 different colored letter boxes and display for everyone to see.] I heard the /A/ just before /n/ so I’m going to put an a and an i together in the 3rd box. I heard /s/ at the beginning so this word must start with an s. [Put s in the 1st box.] Now we have two more boxes to fill before we spell stain. Let’s listen to the whole word again, but listen carefully for what sound comes after our s, /s/:    /s//t//A//n/. I heard /t/ after the s and I know that t says /t/. I need to put a t in the 2nd box. Let’s sound out what we have so far: /s//t//A//… [ Point to each letterbox as you sound it out and repeat several times broken up and blended together.] We need /s//t//A//n/, so this last box must need an n to make the /n/ sound.

 

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1. Say: Now I’m going to have you spell some words in letterboxes. You’ll start out easy with two boxes for aim. When you aim, you move something so that it will point directly at something else.  “I have to aim at the target when I practice shooting my bow and arrow.” What should go into eh first box? [Respond to student’s answers.] What goes in the second box? [Respond to student’s answers.] Great job! I will walk around to see everyone’s spellings. [Observe progress.] You will need three letterboxes for the next word. Listen carefully for the first sound that goes in the boxes. Also listen for /A/ and do not forget to put the buddy i with it in the letterbox. Try the word paid. I paid for the groceries with cash; paid. [Allow students to spell the word.] Let’s check our work together. Watch me spell out paid using my letter boxes and see if you spelled it the same way: p – a – i – d. Try another with three boxes: sail; I sail across the ocean on my boat. Is there anyone who would like to try the letter boxes on the board? [Let student model spelling and help the class self-check their words. Having students demonstrate spelling on the board helps you asses their understanding. This step can be repeated for all of the words.] Our next word is patch. Before you spell it, listen carefully for /A/. The pirate had a patch over his eye; patch. Did you need i as a buddy? Why not? Right, we didn’t hear a say its name. We spell it with our short vowel a. [ Let a volunteer spell it on the board.] Did you remember to spell /ch/ with t- c- h? Now let’s try a 4 phoneme word: waist. The man wears a belt around his waist; waist. One more and then we are done with spelling. This time you need 5 letter boxes: sprain. I hope I don’t sprain my ankle while playing soccer; sprain. Remember to stretch out the word if it a difficult one.

 

1. 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 difficult word. [Display poster with the drain on the top and the model reading the word.] First, I see there is a and i together like buddies. This is my signal that the vowel will say its name. There’s the vowel a. It must say /A/. I am going to use my cover-up critter to cover the end of the word and read the beginning. [Uncover and blend sequentially before the vowel, then blend with the vowel.] /d//r/= /dr/. Now I am going to blend that with /A/= /drA/. Now all I need is the end, /n/. Drain; 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.]

 

1. Say: You’ve done a great job and reading words with our new spellings for /A/: ai. Since we have been talking about not missing the train ride, I think it will be fun to practice our excellent spelling skills and read a story about a train. This book called The Train Ride, and it is about a girl named Gail who goes on an adventure. She rides the train up and down hills, and she finds some mysterious tracks in the mud. She wants to learn who’s foot prints are in the mud. Will she ever find out who’s tracks they are, or will the train leave before they mystery is solved?

 

Let’s pair up and take turns reading to find out what kind of animal lefts its footprints in the mud. [students pair up and take turns reading while the teacher observes and assesses their progress around the room. After the students finish reading the book in pairs, the whole class will come together and reread aloud together. After each page, the teacher should ask a question about the story to keep students engaged. Avoid phonetic instruction while reading.]

 

Say: What a fun story! I love exploring like Gail did on her train ride. I was not expecting her to find a wild cat! Before we finish up with our lessons about one way to spell /A/ = ai, I want to see how you can solve help label some pictures. On this worksheet, there are lots of pictures, but they are missing names. Your job is to read the words in the word box and write the word below the correct picture. Try to read all the words in the box before you label any pictures, and make sure you reread your answers after you label to make sure they make sense. [Collect worksheets to evaluate and asses each student’s progress.]

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References and Resources

Charles, Robert, and Chris Grine. Jake and Gail Go to Spain. Learning A-Z, 

https://www.readinga-z.com/book/decodable.php?id=55

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Marker, Brittany. The Train Ride. Reading Elephant. 2017

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"Wait-Wet Paint"- by Demi Watson

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Assessment worksheet

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