State and Model the Objective
The children will contrast words with the different long a spellings -a_e and -ai and read and write words such as sail, sale, scale, mail, and pail.

Literacy Activities
Have a sale of snails and whales

• Pretend to nail up the sign Whales and Snails for Sale  (found below). 
• Tell the children that they will go to a really big sale—a “whale of a sale.” 
• Show the children how to attach a paper handle to a disposable cup to make a pail (example picture found below).
• Put the pictures of whales and snails (found below) in the pails. 
• Let the children put the whales and snails in the pails on sale.
• Place On Sale! labels on the pictures of a pail, nail, whale, rail, scale, and train (all found below).
• Pretend to put the items that the customers buy in their pails.

Decide who is working in a post office

• Pretend to take the children to a post office to mail some of the whales and snails. 
• Explain that postal workers can be male or female.
• Give students the name tags for female and male workers and customers.

Put mail on a scale and put stamps for sale

• Make a scale by using string to hang the disposable bowls (or cups) from both ends of a ruler.
• Comment on things that the mail workers do: 
  • Put mail on a scale.
  • Sort mail.
  • Put stamps for sale. 
• Let the children write mail to Mr. Snail or Mr. Whale using envelopes or paper.
• Let the children sort letters into piles for Mr. Snail and Mr. Whale using the appropriate signs (found below). 
• Have the children choose if a piece of mail should go by airmail or should go by rail. 
• Have the children sort words with -ai from those with the -a_e spelling.

Mail a whale or a snail?

• Have the customers with whales and snails in pails try to mail a whale or a snail. 
• Tell the customers that they cannot mail whales or snails!
• Let the customers come to the post office with pails to take back their whales and snails.

More Practice
Read and write target words

• Engage the children in shared reading of the target texts (all found below).
• Have the children write words from dictation (e.g., pail, sale, mail, snail, whale).
• Let the children write about how they . . .
  • made pails to carry whales and snails. 
  • went to mail snails and whales.
  • put snails and whales on a scale. 
  • learned that they can’t mail whales or snails.
  • took back the whales and snails.
  • put mail in pails, not whales or snails.