Read with an adult. Take your time. You can say, point, draw or write your answer.
1 Let's look together
Say rain with your adult. The letters ai work together in rain. Now say day. The letters ay can write the same sound.
One sound can be written in different ways. Look carefully at the letters each word uses.
r • ai • nd • ayrain → day
Look, point and talk with your adult.
2 Watch how I do it
I blend r-ai-n: rain. Then I read d-ay: day. I hear the same vowel sound, but I see different spellings.
3 Your turn
Which pair writes the vowel sound in play: ay or sh?
Have a go before opening the answer.
Let's check together
ay. Blend p-l-ay: play.
4 Try it away from the page
Read rain, wait, day and play with an adult. Sort the words under ai and ay.
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Adult notes · prerequisites, safety and coverage
Use only after the correspondences are taught in the school's phonics sequence. Teach a–e in make as a later alternative; do not tell children every vowel pair works this way.
Read instructions aloud. Word-reading practice must match the child's taught sounds. The phonics pages support, but do not replace, the school's systematic synthetic phonics programme. Shared stories are adult-read unless the child can decode them. Re-read and practise daily.
Connect taught sounds and spellings for decoding.
Practise Year 1 spelling patterns, prefixes and endings.