Phase 3 - ai
The activities and games in this blog post can be adapted and used with any sound that your child is learning. Phase 3 sounds and words can be found on the sounds page.
When it rained last week, we noticed some snails outside. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to practice the ai sound (s-n-ai-l). Once it dried up, we took some paintbrushes and water outside. I called out a digraph and Sophie wrote it using the paintbrush and water to leave a trail. I picked flashcards out, told her the sound and asked her to write it. Then I showed her the flash card so she could check if she was correct.

Reading
I drew some snails with trails on the floor using chalk. I wrote the sounds r, ai and n along the trail. We pretended to be snails. As we walked along the trail we said the sounds. When we got to the end we blended the sounds together and said the word e.g. r-ai-n, rain.

I drew another trail with the letters w, ai, t.
Writing
Then Sophie had a go at drawing her own snail. I called out a word and she wrote it along the trail e.g. sail.

Phase 3 words: wait, aim, sail, main, tail, rain, paid, chain.
Phase 4 words: snail (s-n-ai-l) , trail (t-r-ai-l), paint (p-ai-n-t), strain (s-t-r-ai-n).
If you have a go at any of these activities and share any photos on social media I would love to photos of them in action. Please tag @miniwritersclub and use #miniwritersclub and let me know how you get on.
Anna