Week 17, lesson 1 New Graphemes "ai, ay, a_e" - Phonics Phase 5, unit 3 - Lesson plan

In the initial lesson of Week 17, students embark on a journey through the vowels unit with a particular focus on the various spellings for the /ai/ phoneme. The objective of the day is to introduce children to the different graphemes that represent this sound in English words. The lesson kicks off with a lively 'Quickdash' activity, where students rapidly review grapheme flashcards, including digraphs and trigraphs, and shout out the corresponding phoneme for each one, with the pace steadily increasing to challenge their recall and recognition.

Following the warm-up, the class is presented with the Ape pictophone, and they discuss the phoneme it symbolizes. The teacher then writes the graphemes , , and on the board, illustrating how each can represent the /ai/ sound through words like 'rain', 'stay', and 'game', with the relevant grapheme underlined in each example. The children are encouraged to identify patterns in the usage of these graphemes, learning, for instance, that typically appears at the end of a word. The practice segment of the lesson involves a 'Missing Grapheme' game where students must identify the correct grapheme to complete words displayed on the board. Finally, the lesson moves to an application phase where children use mini whiteboards to write dictated words and sentences that include the target graphemes, thus reinforcing their understanding and ability to spell words containing the /ai/ phoneme.