UFLI Phonics Lessons 84 & 85: May 5-9

This week's focus has been introducing long vowel teams. Vowel teams are two or more letters that work together to make one vowel sound. 

ai, ay - long /a/
We have already learned that the letter A can spell the long /a/ in silent (or super hero) e words like in cake. We have also learned that A spells long /a/ in open syllable words like in baby. 

ai - The vowel team ai spells long /a/ and it usually comes in the middle of a word like in bait and mail. But ai sometimes comes at the beginning of a word like in aim and aid. 

ay - The vowel team ay also spells the long /a/ and always comes at the end of a word like day and say. 

In this week's text called, Sunday Fun, students are looking for all the words that have the long /a/ sound based on the ai or ay spelling patterns to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern), followed up with illustrating a picture of the story. Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that just include any letter a in the word - we are specifically looking for the ai and ay making the long /a/ sound.  

ee, ea, ey - long /e/
We have already learned that the letter E can spell the long /e/ in silent (or super hero) e words like in theme. We have also learned that E spells long /a/ in open syllable words like in begin.

ee - The vowel team ee spells long /e/ and it usually comes in the middle of a word like in need and feet. But ee can also come at the end of a word like in see and tree. Also, ee sometimes comes at the beginning of the word like in eel. 

ea - The vowel team ea also spells the long /e/ and usually comes in the middle of a word like in mean and team. It can sometimes come at the beginning of a word like in eat and each and also can come at the end of a word like tea and flea. 

ey - The vowel team ey also spells the long /e/ and only comes at the end of a two-syllable word like in money and turkey.  

In this week's text called, Deep in the Green Forest, students are looking for all the words that have the long /e/ sound based on the ee, ea or ey spelling patterns to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern), followed up with illustrating a picture of the story. Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that just include any letter e in the word - we are specifically looking for the ee. ea and ey making the long /e/ sound.  

Heart (Irregular) Words of the Week
Heart words are words that do not decode or follow the spelling rules that we have been learning. We have to know them by 'heart'. However, once we learn more spelling rules, they may be only temporary heart words and the rules will come along later! In the meantime, we have been focusing on reviewing and learning the words below. 

This week we are reviewing:

• mother
• brother
• father
• water

And we are introducing as new words:

• today
• very
• above
• among

Fluency Grids

As mentioned each week, with each story, there is a fluency grid with the lesson focus that is intended to help students recognize the phonics rule and assist in reading it with accuracy and automaticity. At home, challenge your young reader to read the word (aim is to decode/read each word within 3 seconds) and then recall it each time they see it within the grid of mixed up, repeated words. A couple minutes of practice is all they need. This acts as a warm up before reading the text that also applies the same skill while building on all the previous skills as well. Each week we are building on the previous week to become more fluent readers so we can focus on what the text is sharing rather than spending all the time decoding the words. 

**If this is too much at home with all the other things you are busy with, we totally understand! We will be using it in the classroom and saving paper to keep them all together in one spot. Thank you in advance if you do give it a whirl as another way to support your little reader based on the Science of Reading.** 

Home Reminders: Students have been working on stories in their UFLI Stories book that comes home on Friday. Students are asked to highlight the focus, illustrate a picture for the text and read to an expert at home. After completing, parents are to initial. You are welcome to still record this reading on student reading logs in their Snuggle Up & Read. We want to reward all the practice students are doing! 

Happy reading!