State the Objective

Tell the children that they will pretend to try fried and dried foods and that they will read and write long-i words with the ie vowel combination, such as pies, tied, dried, fried, fries, spied, and tried.

Literacy Activities

Introduce target words

• Show the children the target words.
• Read the words with the children.

Try fried and dried food

• Show the children fried foods (e.g., potato chips) or a picture of fried foods (see below) and dried foods (e.g., raisins) or a picture of dried foods (see below).
• Have each child put fried and/or dried foods or pictures of fried or dried foods on a plate.
• Say, “Let’s try fried and dried food!” and let the children eat, or pretend to eat, their treats.

Identify, blend, and manipulate sounds

• Tell the children that the long i sound in Y (e.g., fry, dry, try, spy) changes to ie when we add an S (e.g., fries, dries, tries, spies) or ed (e.g., fried, dried, tried, spied).
• Explain that words written with ie in present tense (e.g., die, lie) change to past tense when we add a D (e.g., died, lied).
• With word-building cards (see below), have the children make new words by changing the beginning constant(s) or ending consonant(s).
  • Change the ending consonants(s): fry→ fries→ fried, spy→ spies→ spied, try→ tries→ tried

Read Dried or Fried Food

• Read the Dried or Fried Food target text (see below) with the children.
• Have the children read long-i words with the ie vowel combination (e.g., pies, tied, dried, fried, fries, spied, tried).
• Have the children write long-i words with ie from dictation.