Long I: the sound, the words, the books

Kite, bike, hike, night — the long I sound. Five decodable stories and twenty flashcards, each child’s copy starring that child. This guide maps the pack onto the components of systematic, explicit early-literacy instruction (the ones Wisconsin’s 2023 Act 20 names: phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding, letter–sound knowledge, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension).

1. The sound

Target: Long I. Spellings tinted in the books: igh, ie, i. Say the sound in isolation, then in the twenty words, then find it in the captions.

2. The words

Sight words used in the captions: a, the, has, in, on, and, to, is.

3. Phonemic awareness (5 minutes)

• Blend: say the sounds of a pack word slowly; children say the word.
• Segment: say a word; children tap out its sounds.
• Swap: change one sound (cat → hat → hot) with the flashcards face down.

4. Decoding with the flashcards (5 minutes)

• Picture side up: name it, find the tinted sound, say the word.
• Word side up: sound out, blend, check with the picture.
• Speed round: the child reads the word side of ten cards as fast as accuracy allows.

5. The stories (10 minutes each)

1. “the child’s name's Kite” — [NAME] has a new kite with a red stripe, but at the park there is no wind at all. [NAME] runs and runs until a gust lifts the kite high, then a bigger gust dives it into a vine. Dad lifts [NAME] up to tug it free, and the kite flies right up again. (10 pages; uses kite, fly, tie, vine, cry, stripe, right, smile; with Dad)
2. “the child’s name's Bike” — [NAME]'s striped bike has a light, and today [NAME] is riding all the way to the slide. The bike tips into the mud and a cry is coming, until the dog licks the mud off [NAME]'s chin. Back on, right, left, right, left, all the way to the slide. (10 pages; uses bike, slide, light, tie, cry, stripe, right, smile)
3. “the child’s name's Night Light” — At Gran's house the night light clicks off and the bedroom goes dark. A shape looms on the wall: a bat? A bug? [NAME] calls out, and Gran arrives with a lamp: it was only the cat. A kite shadow on the wall, the plug pushed back in, and night, night. (10 pages; uses kite, fly, slide, night, light, cry, right, smile; with Gran)
4. “the child’s name's Big Hike” — [NAME] packs a slice of pie and a lime and hikes up the hill with the dog. They creep past a hive on a vine, picnic on the rock at the top, and the dog finds out what a lime tastes like. Back at sunset, asleep and smiling. (10 pages; uses fly, hive, night, pie, hike, lime, vine, stripe, smile)
5. “the child’s name and the Dice” — Game night: Sis has the dice and the prize is a giant striped tie. Sis shakes a six, [NAME] shakes a one, and tears are close. Then the cat leaps in, the dice fly, and they land on six and six. [NAME] wins, and the cat gets the tie. (10 pages; uses fly, night, tie, dice, cry, stripe, smile, prize; with Sis)

First read: the child decodes every word; wait, do not rush in. Second read: fluency, with expression. Then talk about the pictures in any language the child has.

6. Checking progress

• Accuracy: words read correctly on the first pass of a story (aim for 95%+ before the next pack).
• Letter–sound knowledge: the tinted spellings named in isolation.
• Comprehension: retell the story in three sentences; the pictures are the prompt.
• Engagement: how many re-reads the child asks for. Personalised books are re-read more; count it.

7. Families

Send the flashcards home; the word side is a two-minute routine.

Story Petal books are generated by an image model from instructions we write, checked by a person, and never used to train anything beyond a child’s own order. What our art must get right.