Those tricky vowel sounds! Shortly after students learn the letters and sounds of the alphabet we introduce the concept that some letters, when placed together (vowel digraph), make the long vowel sound. For example, when the letters “ai” appear together, they make the long a sound as in the word “snail”. “ay” also makes the long a sound. These are the two most common vowel digraphs that make the long a sound and are often introduced first. When children are learning to spell words it’s important for them to know the most common placement of the digraphs in the words. The “ay” is most often used at the end of a word and the “ai” in the middle.  Just a