Levels 5-4 and 5-5 focus on the long a sound written as either ai or ay. The general rule of thumb for deciding whether to use ai or ay in a word to make the long a sound is straightforward: in the middle of a syllable, use ai; to close a syllable or end a word, use ay. Simply telling students that ay is used only at the end of a word is not enough, because a suffix can then be added to a root word ending in ay, so words like staying or playful still use ay rather than ai. You'll want to make this clear to your students.

The twenty words used to practice this pattern are as follows:

Level 5.4 ai vs. ay #1: way, day, may, nail, air, pair, rain, hair, stay, gain Level 5.5 ai vs. ay #2: train, stray, lay, play, raise, afraid, sail, fair, paint, main

As always, these are high-frequency words that are important for students to know. With a little bit of ai vs. ay instruction, your students should find these levels beatable!