State and Model the Objective
The children will pretend to be mail carriers and will read and write words with the two long a spellings ai and silent e (a_e), such as mail, plane, pail, and female. 

Literacy Activities
Contrast words that sound alike but have different meanings

• Read the following word pairs: sail, sale; tail, tale; pail, pale; mail, male; hail, hale; main, mane; pain, pane; and plain, plane.
• Contrast the meanings of the words. 

Deliver mail by rail, trail, air, or pail

• Have the children make mail to mail to a classmate. 
• Sort the letters under the signs (found below) that say how the mail will be mailed (i.e., one piece of mail will go under the sign Rail, while others will go under the signs Air Mail, Trail, and Sail).
• Let the children turn the mail in the Air Mail category into paper planes and sail the mail. 
• Give the children a disposable cup and show them how to attach a paper handle (example found below) to make a pail. 
• Have them write pail on their pail with a marker.
• Let children put the mail in the Trail category  in their pails and carry mail along a trail.

Pretend to be a mail carrier who carries mail in the rain and hail

• Read the book No Mail for Mitchell (optional).
• Read the Mail Carriers Never Fail to Deliver Mail target text (found below).
• Place out word cards with -ai or -a_e (found below) to make a trail and let the children read the words.
• Pretend to be mail carriers who trudge along a trail to carry mail in their pails in rain and hail. 
• Sprinkle a little water on the children to make it rain. 

Contrast snail mail with e-mail 

• Contrast e-mail with snail mail (mail delivered by a mail carrier).
• Create a letter with the class and mail it back to the class to see how long it takes.
• Explain that regular mail is called snail mail because it moves slowly.

More Practice
Let male and female mail carriers deliver mail

• State that mail can be delivered by male and female mail carriers.
• Have the students make their own name tags that say Male Mail Carrier or Female Mail Carrier or use the ones found below.
• Have male and female mail carriers pretend to carry mail along a trail.
• Read the Male and Female Mail Carriers target text (found below) with the children.