State and model the objective

Tell the children that they will shoo a fly away from a pie while they read and write words that have the vowels –ie and –y. Make a list of words that have –ie and –y: fry, fly, spy, try, by, my, why, tie, lie, pie, fries, tries, flies. Explain that even though the words are spelled differently they all have the long i sound.

Practice the skill within an activity

• Try a Fry
  • Pretend to be in a restaurant or eating lunch.
  • Give the children paper plates with French fries (real or paper).
  • Have one child spy a fry on another person’s plate and try their fry.
  • Let the next child spy a fry on the next child’s plate and try one of his or her fries. (I’ll try this fry).
  • Continue on down the line of children with plates of paper fries.
  • Comment, “Why, that’s a good fry.”
• Put one fry by another fry
  • Have the children write ‘my fry’ on their paper fry.
  • Make a line of fries.
  • Have one child lay out a fry.
  • Let another child put a fry by the first fry.
  • Comment: “My fry is by that fry. My fry is by this fry. My fry is by Jake’s fry.”
• Try a piece of pie
  • Pretend to be in a restaurant or eating lunch.
  • Let the children have paper plates with pie.
  • Have the children spy pie on another person’s plate and try their pie (I’ll try this pie).
  • Have the children write ‘my pie’ on a piece of paper pie.
  • Have the children make a line of pie and comment that each pie is by another piece of pie.
• Shoo the fly off of a fry
  • Pretend you’re at a restaurant and you have a few French fries to eat, but then you spot a fly!
  • Comment that you hope that fly doesn't land on one of your fries.
  • Tell the fly, “Don’t land on MY fry”.
  • Tell the fly to go buy its own fry. Shoo the fly to the fry that’s by one of your friends.
  • Tell the guy in the restaurant that you want to buy another fry. Shoo away the fly and see if it lands on another fry.
  • Tell the guy in the restaurant that you want to buy another fry.
  • Repeat the activity with a piece of pie and let one child pretend to be a fly (optional).

Apply the skill (Choose from the activities below)

• Phonological Awareness
  • Word Building:
    • With word blending cards (see below), have the children make new words by changing the vowel or either of the consonants:
      • fly --> fry; spy --> sky; try --> dry; my --> by; pie --> lie; tie --> pie
      • fries --> fried; tries --> tried; flies --> flied
      • fry --> fries; fly --> flies; try --> tries; spy -->spies
• Read target words in texts (see below)
  • Engage the children in reading the target text Fly, Don’t Land on MY Pie! together as a class/group.
  • Read the text again fading support.
  • Ask the children to listen for words with the long i sound as you read the text together.
  • Have the children make a list of the words with the –ie and –y vowels.
  • Repeat with the target text Try Some Fries.
• Write about the activity using target words/patterns
  • Give each child a paper and pencil and let them write words from dictation: fly, fry, try, my, by, pie, fries, tries, flies.
  • Give each child a paper and pencil and let them write about what they did when they kept a fly from landing on their fries and pies. Have them include these words: try, fry, fly, pie, fries, tries, flies.