State and Model the Objective
The children will pretend to spy a butterfly fly by and then read and write words with the long i sound spelled with a y, such as fly, spy, try, why, cry, sky, my, and why. 
 
Literacy Activities
Spy a butterfly fly by

• Pretend to be outside looking at the sky.
• Hold up the pictures of a butterfly, dragonfly, fly, bird, and penguin (all found below) one at a time.
• Let the children decide if each animal can fly.
• Have the children write “It can fly in the sky” or “It can not fly in the sky” for each picture.
• Make comments to emphasize words with the long i sound spelled with a y:
  • I know why a penguin can’t fly.
  • I spy a dragonfly.
  • Oh my! I spy a butterfly in the sky.

Spy action cards in the sky

• Show children the action cards (found below) and hold them up to the sky.
• Have the children read the sentence on each card and perform the action.

More Practice 
Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• With word-building cards (found below), have the children change the beginning consonant(s) or the ending of a word to form a new word:  
  • Change the beginning consonant(s): fly→ try, my→ by, spy→ why, cry→ sky
  • Change the ending to -ies: fly→ flies, try→ tries, spy→ spies, fry→ fries
  • Change the ending to -ied: try→ tried, spy→ spied, fry→ fried

Read target words in texts 

• Engage the children in reading the target text I Spy a Butterfly (found below) as a group.
• Read the text again, fading support.
• Have the children make a list of the words with the long i sound spelled with y.
• Repeat with Did a Butterfly Fly By?

Write about the activity using target words and patterns

• Let the children write about the things they can spy in the sky or animals that can fly or try to fly. 
• Have them use some of these words: butterfly, dragonfly, spy, fly, by, sky, and try.