What is the difference between AI and AY in phonics?

Both AI and AY represent the long A vowel sound, but their position in a word differs. AI (as in rain, train, mail) appears in the middle of a word or syllable. AY (as in play, day, say) appears at the end of a word or syllable. Teaching children this positional rule helps them choose the correct spelling pattern when writing.

When should I introduce AI and AY worksheets to students?

AI and AY vowel teams are typically introduced in late first grade or early second grade, after students have mastered short vowels and silent-e patterns. Students should be comfortable blending CVC words before tackling vowel teams. Many phonics programs introduce AI and AY together since they make the same sound.

How do I teach the AI and AY spelling rule?

Use the simple rule: AI stays in the middle, AY comes out to play at the end. When the long A sound is in the middle of a word, use AI (rain, pain, wait). When the long A sound is at the end of a word, use AY (play, today, spray). Practice with sorting activities, dictation, and word building exercises to reinforce the pattern.

What are common AI words for kids?

Common AI words for elementary students include: rain, train, chain, brain, plain, stain, main, gain, pain, mail, tail, sail, nail, rail, fail, wait, bait, paid, maid, and aid. These words all have the AI vowel team in the middle position making the long A sound.

What are common AY words for kids?

Common AY words for elementary students include: play, day, say, way, stay, pray, clay, spray, tray, gray, may, pay, lay, ray, bay, hay, today, away, birthday, and Sunday. These words all end with the AY vowel team making the long A sound.

Are there exceptions to the AI and AY rule?

Yes, there are some exceptions. A few words use AY in the middle position, such as mayor, crayon, bayou, and prayer. The word 'said' uses AI but makes a short E sound instead of long A. Teaching the rule first with common words builds confidence, then exceptions can be introduced later as students encounter them in reading.

How can I make AI and AY practice more engaging?

Use multisensory strategies: have students sort word cards into AI and AY columns, build words with letter tiles, play bingo with AI/AY words, use rainbow writing to trace the vowel teams in color, create word hunts in books, and practice with sand or shaving cream writing. Games like 'AI or AY Swat' where students hit the correct spelling pattern make practice fun.

Can I use these AI and AY worksheets for homework?

Absolutely. These worksheets are designed to be used as classroom practice, homework, literacy centers, or morning work. Simply copy the content, paste it into a document, format as needed, and print. The sorting activities and fill-in-the-blank exercises work especially well for independent homework practice.

What grade level are these AI and AY worksheets for?

These worksheets are primarily designed for first grade through third grade students. The word lists and activities range from simple K-1 words (rain, day, play) to more challenging grade 2-3 words (complain, display, explain). Teachers can select worksheets that match their students' reading levels.

How do AI and AY worksheets support reading fluency?

Practicing vowel team patterns like AI and AY builds orthographic mapping, helping students recognize these letter combinations automatically. When students can quickly decode AI and AY words without sounding out each letter, their reading fluency improves. Repeated exposure through worksheets, word lists, and connected text practice all contribute to faster, more accurate reading.

How do I assess student mastery of AI and AY patterns?

Use a combination of methods: dictation tests where students write AI and AY words from oral prompts, sorting assessments where students categorize words, reading fluency checks with AI/AY decodable passages, and spelling tests with graded word lists. Students should demonstrate at least 80% accuracy across multiple assessment types before moving on.

Can SchoolGPT generate more AI and AY worksheets?

Yes! SchoolGPT's Worksheet Generator can create custom AI and AY phonics worksheets tailored to your students' level. Simply describe the type of activity you want (sorting, fill-in-the-blank, word search, etc.), specify the target words, and get a print-ready worksheet in seconds. You can also generate differentiated versions for various reading levels.

Phonics Resources

AI and AY Worksheets: Free Phonics Activities & Printables

Ready-to-use AI and AY vowel team worksheets for grades K-3. Sorting activities, word searches, cloze passages, spelling lists, and more. Copy any worksheet instantly.

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Printable Worksheets

Complete, copy-ready phonics worksheets covering AI and AY vowel teams with answer keys.

Practice Words

100+

Curated AI and AY words organized by word family, grade level, and difficulty.

Grade Levels

K-3

Activities scaled from kindergarten readiness to third-grade challenge words.

What Are AI and AY Words?

AI and AY are vowel teams that both make the long A sound (/eɪ/). They follow a simple positional spelling rule that helps students know which pattern to use when writing:

AI = Middle of a Word

When the long A sound appears in the middle of a word or syllable, use AI.

raintrainmailbrainchainpaintwaitsnail

AY = End of a Word

When the long A sound appears at the end of a word or syllable, use AY.

playdaysaywaystaysprayclaytoday

Easy rule to remember: "AI stays inside, AY comes out to play at the end." Both make the same long A sound, but their position in the word determines which spelling to use.

AI vs AY Sorting Activity Fill in the Blank Sent...AI and AY Word Family ...Read and Color Activity Sentence Writing Practice AI and AY Word Search Cloze Passage: A Rainy...AI/AY Spelling Test Wo...AI/AY Cut and Paste So...

AI and AY Worksheets Collection

Click the copy button on any worksheet to copy it to your clipboard. Paste into a document, format as needed, and print for your students.

AI vs AY Sorting Activity

Students sort words into AI and AY columns to reinforce the spelling pattern.

AI vs AY Word Sort
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Directions: Read each word below. Write it in the correct column.

Word Bank:
rain, play, train, day, chain, say, brain, way, plain, stay,
mail, pray, tail, clay, wait, spray, paid, tray, gain, gray

┌─────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
│    AI Words         │    AY Words         │
│    (middle)         │    (end)            │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
│ 1. _______________  │ 1. _______________  │
│ 2. _______________  │ 2. _______________  │
│ 3. _______________  │ 3. _______________  │
│ 4. _______________  │ 4. _______________  │
│ 5. _______________  │ 5. _______________  │
│ 6. _______________  │ 6. _______________  │
│ 7. _______________  │ 7. _______________  │
│ 8. _______________  │ 8. _______________  │
│ 9. _______________  │ 9. _______________  │
│ 10. ______________  │ 10. ______________  │
└─────────────────────┴─────────────────────┘

ANSWER KEY:
AI Words: rain, train, chain, brain, plain, mail, tail, wait, paid, gain
AY Words: play, day, say, way, stay, pray, clay, spray, tray, gray

Fill in the Blank Sentences

Complete each sentence by choosing the correct AI or AY word.

Fill in the Blank: AI and AY Words
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Directions: Choose the correct word from the word bank to complete each sentence.

Word Bank: rain, play, train, day, snail, say, brain, stay, paint, away

1. We like to __________ outside at recess.

2. The __________ moved slowly across the leaf.

3. I use my __________ to think and learn.

4. Can you __________ your name out loud?

5. The __________ fell from the dark clouds.

6. What a beautiful __________ it is today!

7. I want to __________ at my friend's house.

8. The __________ goes down the long tracks.

9. She will __________ a picture of a rainbow.

10. The bird flew far __________ from the tree.

ANSWER KEY:
1. play  2. snail  3. brain  4. say  5. rain
6. day  7. stay  8. train  9. paint  10. away

AI and AY Word Family Lists

Complete word family lists organized by rime pattern for systematic practice.

AI and AY Word Family Lists
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

AI WORD FAMILIES:

-ain family:    rain, train, chain, brain, plain, stain, main,
                gain, pain, drain, grain, Spain, strain, sprain

-ail family:    mail, tail, sail, nail, rail, fail, trail,
                snail, pail, hail, jail, quail, detail

-ait family:    wait, bait, trait

-aid family:    paid, maid, braid,raid, afraid

-aim family:    aim, claim, exclaim

-air family:    fair, pair, chair, stair, hair, repair


AY WORD FAMILIES:

-ay family:     play, day, say, way, stay, pray, clay, spray,
                tray, gray, may, pay, lay, ray, bay, hay, jay,
                sway, stray, display, delay, okay, today,
                away, birthday, holiday, Sunday, Monday

-ays family:    days, plays, says, ways, stays, rays, pays,
                always, hallways


PRACTICE: Write 3 sentences using at least one word from each family.

1. _________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________

Read and Color Activity

Students read sentences, find AI and AY words, and highlight them in different colors.

Read and Color: Find the AI and AY Words
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Directions: Read each sentence. Color AI words BLUE and AY words YELLOW.

1. The rain came down on a gray day.

2. Jay will wait for the train to play.

3. May I sail my clay boat today?

4. The snail left a trail on the tray.

5. We will stay and paint on Sunday.

6. The mail came in the rain again.

7. Ray will explain the way to the bay.

8. I paid to stay and play all day.

9. The maid will spray and clean the stain.

10. Jay said a prayer on the plain.

11. We will display the chain we made of clay.

12. The quail ran away down the trail on a rainy day.

ANSWER TRACKING:
How many AI words did you find? _____
How many AY words did you find? _____

ANSWER KEY:
AI words (blue): rain, wait, train, sail, snail, trail, tray, stay, paint,
  mail, rain, paid, stay, maid, spray, stain, prayer, plain, chain, trail,
  quail, rainy
AY words (yellow): gray, day, Jay, play, May, today, clay, Sunday, Ray,
  way, bay, pay, play, day, Jay, pray, display, clay, away, day

Sentence Writing Practice

Students write original sentences using target AI and AY words.

Sentence Writing Practice: AI and AY Words
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Part 1: Write a sentence using each AI word.

1. rain: ________________________________________________

2. train: _______________________________________________

3. mail: ________________________________________________

4. brain: _______________________________________________

5. chain: _______________________________________________

6. paint: _______________________________________________


Part 2: Write a sentence using each AY word.

1. play: ________________________________________________

2. today: _______________________________________________

3. spray: _______________________________________________

4. birthday: ____________________________________________

5. away: ________________________________________________

6. clay: ________________________________________________


Part 3: Write a sentence using BOTH an AI word and an AY word.

Example: I will wait all day for the train.

1. ______________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________


CHECKLIST:
☐ Each sentence starts with a capital letter
☐ Each sentence ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point
☐ Each sentence makes sense
☐ AI and AY words are spelled correctly

AI and AY Word Search

Find hidden AI and AY words in a letter grid puzzle.

AI and AY Word Search
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Directions: Find and circle all 16 hidden AI and AY words.
Words can go across (→) or down (↓).

    T R A I N P L A Y S
    B R A I N S Q M R T
    C H A I N T R A Y A
    G R A Y D A I I H Y
    S N A I L Y N L A P
    P L A I N W A I T R
    S A I L S A Y D E A
    D A Y B P Y G A I N
    S P R A Y R A Y J K
    C L A Y T O D A Y L

WORD LIST (find all 16):
□ TRAIN     □ PLAY      □ BRAIN     □ STAY
□ CHAIN     □ TRAY      □ GRAY      □ PRAY
□ SNAIL     □ MAIL      □ PLAIN     □ SAY
□ WAIT      □ SAIL      □ DAY       □ TODAY
□ SPRAY     □ RAY       □ CLAY      □ GAIN

How many did you find? _____ / 16

Cloze Passage: A Rainy Day

Read the story and fill in the missing AI and AY words from context.

Cloze Passage: A Rainy Day
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Directions: Fill in each blank with the correct AI or AY word from the word bank.

Word Bank: rain, day, train, play, snail, gray, paint, stay, mail, clay,
           wait, today, brain, away, chain, spray

It was a __________ (1) morning. The sky was __________ (2) and full of
clouds. The __________ (3) began to fall, tap-tap-tapping on the window.

"Can we go outside and __________ (4)?" asked Maya.

"We need to __________ (5) inside __________ (6)," said Mom. "But we can
still have fun! Let's use our __________ (7) to think of things to do."

First, they decided to __________ (8) pictures. Maya painted a long
__________ (9) with a red caboose. Her little brother made a __________
(10) pot out of __________ (11).

After lunch, they watched a __________ (12) crawl slowly across the
porch. It left a shiny __________ (13) behind it, like a tiny
__________ (14) of silver.

"Let's check the __________ (15)!" said Maya. They ran to the mailbox.
The __________ (16) from the garden hose had stopped, and a rainbow
appeared far __________ (17) in the sky.

"What a great __________ (18)!" Maya said with a smile.

ANSWER KEY:
1. rainy  2. gray  3. rain  4. play  5. stay  6. today
7. brain  8. paint  9. train  10. clay  11. clay  12. snail
13. trail  14. chain  15. mail  16. spray  17. away  18. day

AI/AY Spelling Test Word Lists

Graded spelling lists for dictation tests, progressing from simple to advanced.

AI/AY Spelling Test Word Lists
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

LIST 1 - Beginning (Kindergarten / Grade 1)
1. rain          6. day
2. play          7. mail
3. say           8. tail
4. wait          9. pay
5. may          10. nail

LIST 2 - Intermediate (Grade 1 / Grade 2)
1. train        6. gray
2. stay         7. brain
3. clay         8. chain
4. spray        9. plain
5. today       10. snail

LIST 3 - Advanced (Grade 2 / Grade 3)
1. explain      6. display
2. complain     7. birthday
3. afraid       8. holiday
4. stairway     9. everyday
5. exclaim     10. entertain

LIST 4 - Challenge Words (Grade 3+)
1. container    6. yesterday
2. maintain     7. playground
3. certainly    8. driveway
4. portrait     9. hallway
5. remainder   10. halfway


DICTATION SENTENCES (for spelling in context):

Beginning:
1. The rain will fall today.
2. Can you play on this nice day?

Intermediate:
1. The gray train went down the plain.
2. We will stay and spray the clay today.

Advanced:
1. Please explain why you complain every birthday.
2. The display at the stairway was on a holiday.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Teacher Notes: Give 1 point per correct spelling.
Mastery = 8/10 correct on each list before advancing.

AI/AY Cut and Paste Sorting

A hands-on cut-and-paste activity for kinesthetic learners to sort AI and AY words.

AI/AY Cut and Paste Sorting Activity
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Directions: Cut out the word cards below. Glue each word in the
correct column on the sorting mat.

SORTING MAT:
┌──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│     AI Words             │     AY Words             │
│     (vowel team in       │     (vowel team at       │
│      the middle)         │      the end)            │
├──────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│                          │                          │
│  ┌─────┐  ┌─────┐       │  ┌─────┐  ┌─────┐       │
│  │glue │  │glue │       │  │glue │  │glue │       │
│  └─────┘  └─────┘       │  └─────┘  └─────┘       │
│                          │                          │
│  ┌─────┐  ┌─────┐       │  ┌─────┐  ┌─────┐       │
│  │glue │  │glue │       │  │glue │  │glue │       │
│  └─────┘  └─────┘       │  └─────┘  └─────┘       │
│                          │                          │
│  ┌─────┐  ┌─────┐       │  ┌─────┐  ┌─────┐       │
│  │glue │  │glue │       │  │glue │  │glue │       │
│  └─────┘  └─────┘       │  └─────┘  └─────┘       │
│                          │                          │
└──────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

✂ ─ ─ ─ CUT HERE ─ ─ ─ ✂ ─ ─ ─ CUT HERE ─ ─ ─ ✂

┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐
│  rain    │ │  play   │ │  tail   │ │  day    │
└─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘
┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐
│  stay   │ │  brain  │ │  gray   │ │  pain   │
└─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘
┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐
│  sail   │ │  spray  │ │  chain  │ │  clay   │
└─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘

ANSWER KEY:
AI: rain, tail, brain, pain, sail, chain
AY: play, day, stay, gray, spray, clay

AI vs AY Rules Explained

The Core Rule

English spelling follows a consistent pattern for the long A vowel teams AI and AY. The rule is straightforward:

Use AI when the long A sound is in the beginning or middle of a word or syllable: rain, train, aim, braid, afraid, contain
Use AY when the long A sound is at the end of a word or syllable: play, day, okay, birthday, runway, hallway

Why Does This Rule Exist?

In English, the letter I rarely appears at the end of a word. When a vowel team needs to come at the end, Y takes the place of I. This is the same pattern seen in other vowel teams:

AI / AY

rain / play

OI / OY

coin / boy

EI / EY

rein / they

Exceptions to Know

While the rule works for most words, there are a few exceptions students may encounter:

!said - Uses AI but makes a short E sound (/sɛd/), not long A. This is one of the most common exceptions.
!crayon, mayor, prayer - These words use AY in a middle position, which is uncommon. They come from French or have compound origins.
!again, against, captain, mountain - The AI in these words makes a short vowel sound rather than long A. These are best taught as sight words.

Teaching AI and AY: Lesson Ideas & Strategies

Anchor Chart Content

Create a classroom anchor chart with the following content to give students a visual reference:

Long A Vowel Teams: AI and AY

Middle of the word

rain, train, mail, brain

End of the word

play, day, say, today

Remember: AI stays inside. AY comes out to play!

Suggested Lesson Sequence (5 Days)

Day 1

Introduce AI Words

Read aloud a text with many AI words. Discuss the pattern. Build AI words with letter tiles. Practice reading 10-15 AI words on flashcards. Introduce the anchor chart.

Day 2

Introduce AY Words

Review AI words briefly. Introduce AY words with a shared reading. Compare AI and AY positions. Students highlight AI and AY words in a passage. Use the Read and Color worksheet.

Day 3

Sorting and Comparing

Teach the positional rule explicitly. Students complete the AI vs AY Sorting Activity. Play 'AI or AY?' with new words (teacher says word, students hold up AI or AY card). Use the Cut and Paste worksheet.

Day 4

Application and Practice

Dictation with AI and AY words in sentences. Students complete Fill in the Blank and Cloze Passage worksheets. Word hunt in classroom library books. Sentence Writing Practice worksheet.

Day 5

Assessment and Review

Administer spelling test using the graded word lists. Students complete the Word Search as a fun review. Quick sort assessment (give 10 words, student sorts independently). Celebrate mastery!

Multisensory Strategies for AI and AY

Visual

Color-code AI in blue and AY in yellow across all activities
Use word family charts posted on the wall
Highlight vowel teams in decodable readers
Create a personal AI/AY word wall in student notebooks

Auditory

Chant the rule: 'AI in the middle, AY at the end!'
Sing AI and AY words to familiar tunes
Dictation exercises with immediate feedback
Partner reading with AI/AY decodable texts

Kinesthetic

Build words with magnetic letters or tiles
Write AI/AY words in sand, salt, or shaving cream
Body spelling: touch head for AI, touch toes for AY
Cut and paste sorting with physical word cards

Tactile

Trace AI and AY patterns with finger on textured paper
Use playdough to form AI and AY words
Rainbow writing: trace each word in multiple colors
Stamp AI/AY words with letter stamps

AI and AY Word Lists by Grade Level

Kindergarten & Grade 1

High-frequency, single-syllable words

AI Words (K-1)

rainaimaidairmailtailnailpailrailsailfailmainpaingainwaitbaitpaidmaidfairhair

AY Words (K-1)

daysaymaypaywaylayraybayhayjayplaystaypraygrayclaytrayawayokaytodaySunday

Grade 2 & Grade 3

Multi-syllable and compound words

AI Words (2-3)

trainbrainchainplainstaindraingrainstrainsprainsnailtrailquaildetailbraidafraidcomplainexplaincontainremainmaintainexclaimportraitentertainstairway

AY Words (2-3)

spraystrayswaydelaydecayrelayrepaydisplaybirthdayholidayeverydayyesterdaydrivewayhallwayhighwayrunwaysubwayhalfwaydoorwaygatewaypathwayrailwayplaygroundalways

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