Are you teaching vowel sounds? It's so helpful to have a bank of word lists and activities to refer to at a moment's notice. Grab this list of long i sound words, my printable activities, worksheets, games, and more to set yourself up for success. I'll also break down the different spelling patterns to help you teach this long vowel sound more easily than ever.
Teaching long and short vowel sounds can be challenging, especially in the early years. Every word contains at least one vowel sound. Although they often follow predictable patterns, there are also many exceptions. To be successful readers, our students must reliably predict how to pronounce the vowels in words. If they get it wrong over and over again, they feel frustrated and are less motivated to persevere. which is the last thing we want!
The good news is that when we teach long and short vowel sounds in-depth using evidence-based instructional strategies, our students will be better equipped to tackle any new and challenging words. This makes it easier for them to learn to read, which will help them build their confidence and love of reading.
To help set you up for success, I've created hundreds of resources about long vowel sound words, short vowels, vowel teams, high-frequency words and more. I use brain science and evidence-based practices to focus on the skills that actually make a difference!
In this blog post, I'll guide you through what you need to know and supply you with resources to make teaching the long i easy and fun.
What is the long vowel i?
The long sound i sounds like the letter name: /i/ or eye. This is very different from the short vowel sound, which usually sounds like "ih" (or "uh" if it is a schwa).
If you pay close attention, you might notice that the /i/ sounds a little like y at the end! They are very similar sounds.
Take some time to teach your students how to form this sound with their mouths. Notice what it feels like and listen for that little y at the end. Add to your sound wall for students to reference at any time.
Teaching Long i Sound Words
In my long o vowel sound post, I described in depth how to teach long vowel sounds from a synthetic phonics (Science of Reading) perspective. These strategies can be used for the long i too!
- Always start with oral practice and incorporate sound boxes and lots of phonetic practice.
- Start with regularly spelled words, then move on to predictable, reliable patterns, like the consonant-e pattern (Magic E), and then focus on the less common patterns.
- Take your time, go in-depth, and give students ample practice to learn each and every sound.
Free Printable Long Vowel Word Lists
If you need a quick reference sheet with all the long vowel sounds, spelling patterns, and more, make sure you grab my free decodable long vowel word lists. This makes it easy to pull up lots of examples of words on the fly.
Get your own free printable list here!
Long i Spelling Patterns
There are 5 typical ways to express the long i sound and two less common options.
- i (child, idea)
- y (my, cycle)
- i_e (mine, drive)
- igh (night, moonlight)
- ie (pie, tried)
- Less common: y_e (analyse) and ye (bye)
I break down all the common spelling patterns for long i in this free guide.
It can also be helpful to know the different spelling frequencies. For example, i_e and i are the most common way to spelling Long I (37%), followed by y (14%) and igh (6%).
Download this free vowel spelling frequencies guide here.
You can also download the matching free posters for all the long vowel sounds. The Long Vowel I Spelling Patterns poster is ideal for displaying on your classroom wall or even distributing to students for reference. It includes 5 common spelling patterns for long i with examples and details to help them along the way.
Words with i_e (CVCe)
This is one of the easiest patterns for early readers to understand, and it works with all the sounds of long vowels. This is the Magic E pattern. When there is an e at the end of a word, the vowel almost always says its name. Without the letter e, the i would be a short vowel sound (pine vs pin). This pattern is a great way to practise long and short vowel words at the same time.
- bike
- bite
- chime
- dime
- dine
- dive
- file
- fire
- five
- hive
- kite
- shine
- side
- tid
- white
- wide
- arise
- bride
- glide
- knife
- swipe
- tribe
- alpine
- device
- dislike
- exercise
- iceberg
- lifetime
- nineteen
- paradise
- sunshine
Words with i
This pattern is one of the easiest to pronounce since the sound matches the letter.
In one-syllable words, the i is often long when it precedes two consonants, like child and kind.
In two-syllable words, the i is usually long at the end of the syllable in open syllable words (pilot and minus).
Tip: I highly recommend taking some time to teach your students about different syllable types. They catch onto it much faster than you'd think, and it's really helpful!
- child
- diet
- idea
- kind
- lion
- rind
- tiger
- tiny
- blind
- climate
- diving
- giant
- lilac
- minus
- pilot
- pirate
- spider
- title
- bicycle
- dinosaur
- finally
- finance
- library
- primary
- rewind
- silent
- triangle
- violin
Words with y
One of the most common ways that we express the /i/ sound at the end of the word is with the letter y. For many of these words, the /i/ is at the end of the word (apply), while others are at the end of the first syllable (cyclone). The y is at the end of a syllable.
- by
- my
- shy
- why
- cry
- dry
- fly
- fry
- pry
- sky
- sly
- spy
- sty
- try
- apply
- crying
- cyber
- cycle
- cyclone
- defy
- drying
- dynamic
- electrify
- frying
- hydrant
- notify
- python
- terrify
- unify
When the long i sound is at the end of words with three or more syllables, the 'y' usually follows an 'f' e.g. testify, satisfy.
Words with igh
This pattern usually occurs in the middle or end of a syllable, which can be open or closed. For example, high is at the end of an open syllable while blight is in the middle of the closed syllable. This pattern may occur either in the middle of a word or at the end, but it is never at the beginning.
- high
- sigh
- thigh
- fight
- higher
- night
- knight
- light
- might
- right
- sight
- tight
- alight
- bright
- fright
- highway
- sighing
- slight
- copyright
- daylight
- delight
- eyesight
- fortnight
- midnight
- spotlight
- sunlight
- tightrope
Words with ie
There aren't as many words with this pattern, but this short list of words gets a lot of use in the English language! This pattern also includes the present tense or past tense version of verbs that end in y (cry, cries, cried).
- die
- lie
- pie
- tie
- died
- tied
- cried
- cries
- dried
- dries
- fried
- fries
- replies
- skies
- tried
- magpie
- necktie
- untie
Rare spelling alternatives
y_e
This y-consonant-silent e pattern is often seen in words of Greek origin and is usually in longer, multisyllabic words.
- analyse/analyze
- hype
- paralyse/paralyze
- style
- stereotype
- thyme
- type
ye
- bye
- dye
- rye
Long I Resources & Activities
All of the resources below are available in The Hive, our digital teaching platform that integrates your lesson plans, visual schedule, instructional videos, and digital learning activities into one easy dashboard. It's also fully stocked with thousands of printables, games, activities and more that you can pull up at a moment's notice.
Here are a few of the digital learning tools that you'll find in The Hive to help you teach Long Vowel I.
Word Builder
Decodable Words
Nonsense Decodable Words
Decodable Sentences
Decodable Images
Flash Cards
Roll A Silly Sentence
Tic Tac Toe
Spinner Picker
Start your free 14 day trial of The Hive today!
In addition to the digital activities above, we have so many long vowel activities, games, and resources on The Hive, including many tailored to the long i sound and its various spelling patterns. You'll find hundreds of literacy products like these, including activities for all the other long and short vowel sounds, vowel teams, and so much more.
Digital Lesson Slides
Simplify your instruction by using this slideshow. This long i slideshow has over 650 slides to cover everything your kids need to know about this sound and get lots of practice.
This resource is a fantastic addition to any phonics program and can be used instantly. I also have slides for all the long vowel sounds, short sounds, r-controlled vowels, and much more!
They're all included in The Hive.
Long Vowel Word Chains
These digital slides are a fantastic way to reinforce those phonemic awareness skills. Students substitute, add, and subtract sounds in words to pronounce the next one in the sequence.
This is one of the best ways to strengthen your students' understanding of long vowel sounds and their spelling patterns!
You might also like the Long Vowel I Word Chain printable versions too!
Word Sort
This printable word sort has students sort words with the same sound by the spelling pattern.
It requires them to really attend to the structure of the word and is fantastic practice!
Word Mapping
Ditch the flash cards; there's a better approach! In synthetic phonics, we start with phonemic awareness to help students recognise the individual sounds in words. Then, they can move on to matching those sounds with letters. It's very effective and requires much less repetition.
I have several word mapping activities to practise this skill in different ways to keep it interesting.
Kids love this Long I Word Mapping activity and my Long I Spin It Spell It.
Find and Cover
In this long I activity, students match the words in the word bank with the images in the gumball machine.
Each example practises the different spelling patterns, so it's a great way to consolidate all of those literacy lessons. You might like to also use the black and white versions as a review worksheet.
Phonics Clip Cards
Each card has two spelling variations for each word, and students must clip the card to find the correct spelling. These vowel team activities are easy to use and practise more challenging skills in a fun, hands-on way.
Read the Room
Kids love these read the room activities! Instead of just a plain worksheet, students must get up to find the missing words around the room. This makes it feel more like an adventure!
Decodable Sentences Pyramids
Support those early readers with these easy-to-use decodable long i sentences! The repetition and predictable pattern really helps build their reading fluency (and confidence).
You might also like these other Long Vowel I Decodable Sentence activities:
Roll and Write Activity Mats
For these long i roll and write mats, students roll the dice, then write words with long vowel spelling patterns 5 times each. Great for independent work time!
Lookalike Words
Lookalike words are one of the best ways to get students to focus on the sounds in the words they hear. Each page has a list of images and three different words that look similar.
Students must pronounce the name of the image and then decode each word in the line to find the right one. This is fantastic for building phonemic awareness!
Phonics Flip
Kids learn the best when they're having fun! Incorporating games into your instruction makes it easier for them to practise skills without losing interest or getting overly frustrated. Phonics Flip includes a UNO-style game to practise the different spelling patterns in this post!
Decode and Draw
This is one of my favourite activities for kids! I love to use hands-on activities and incorporate art, movement, and creativity whenever possible.
In this decode and draw activity, students can decode a sentence, or a phrase, or a word, drawing a picture for each one. Some students can do all three. These are ideal for literacy centers or independent work!
Decodable Words and Sentences
These decodable words and sentence cards can be used for any number of decodable activities e.g. rainbow roll and write, Celebrity Heads, decode & draw, dictation and more. They come in rainbow or neutral versions.
Directed Drawings
With these CVCe directed drawings, students first practise drawing an image, then reading and writing decodable words in several forms. This allows them to practise this specific sound, decoding, and writing at the same time.
This activity uses only CVCe words with long i sounds, so it's a great option for the beginning of your learning sequence.
IE or IGH Task Cards & Printables
In this activity, students hone in on those specific spelling patterns to practise ie and igh. Use double-sided counters with 'ie' or 'igh' written on them in permanent marker. Alternatively, use the included counter templates, or students could write the spelling pattern in write and wipe mats.
These are two of the most commonly misused long i spelling patterns, so this is especially helpful practice!
Phonics Review Printables
There are 25 pages to practise the long i sound and much more, all in one place.
Long I Poppit Task Cards
These task cards can be used to target both phonics or phonemic awareness skills. Students must pop each of the sounds in a decodable long I word before writing or building that word.
Alternatively, just pop the sounds for more of a phonemic awareness focus.
Long I Grapheme Detectives
With these printable worksheets, students take it turns to quiz a partner or group member with one of the long I word cards. Students must either write the long i word in the correct column, OR write all the different spelling options, then circle the correct spelling. A few different levels are included.
Long I Hidden Words
Kids LOVE hunting for the long I words in the pictures! These are also available as a digital activity too.
Build A Word Cards
With these task cards, students look at an image of a long I word. Then, they must write or build the word using the correct spelling. This is a great way to practise those long I spelling patterns to figure out when to use each one!
Firefighter Phonics
In this decodable word matching game, students practise blending and segmenting Long I words and place a water droplet with a decodable image on top of the corresponding decodable word fire to "put it out."
Roll A Silly Sentence
This much-loved activity is ALWAYS a hit! Students roll the dice four times to create a 'silly' decodable sentence. They can then write this sentence on their mini whiteboard.
Phonics Hexagons
This long vowel activity provides students with a grapheme prompt in the middle of the hexagon. They must write the matching decodable words for all the pictures in the hexagon.
Tic Tac Toe
A simple, popular game that kids love to play! Students take it in turns to read a decodable word on the gameboard, and try to be the first to get three counters in a row.
Phonics Check In Assessments
These print-and-go assessments are extremely helpful to assess where your students are right now. I have these for all of the other long vowels, too!
Phonics Open-Ended Brainstorm Assessments
These printable brainstorm templates are a more open-ended way to assess long vowel sounds - giving students plenty of opportunity to demonstrate what they know.
A variety of different templates are included.
More Resources for Teaching Long Vowel Sounds
- Long and Short Vowel Sounds Poster - This handy poster makes it so much easier for kids to remember how to pronounce the long and short vowels! It uses common images, like apple or umbrella, to help kids remember the sounds by sight. It's a fantastic literacy resource for your reading wall!
- Snakes & Ladders - always a favourite game for kids to play, and a great way to practise decoding skills at the same time!
- Sentence Editing Task Cards - help students to edit sentences and build their proofreading skills by checking for punctuation and spelling errors. These task cards contain sentences using long vowel words and simple sight words (high frequency words with irregular or tricky spellings).
- Long Vowel Board Games - These print and go long vowel team games cover all the long vowel sounds and each game can be differentiated in a variety of ways to consolidate the spelling of long vowel sound words.
- Connect 4 - Students take it in turns to read one of the decodable words on the gameboard, and cover with a counter. The first student to get four words in a row is the winner.
Looking for more?
Don't forget - if you're a primary teacher, The Hive is like having a helpful veteran teacher in your back pocket, ready to help at any time. All of the resources listed in this blog post - plus thousands more - are part of a Hive Unlimited subscription!
Plus, you'll love our one-of-a-kind Word Builder tool!
