Only start digraphs when you know you individual letter sounds really well!

A digraph is two letters (instead of an individual letter) that says a certain sound.

Let’s start with some of the most common ones; th, sh and ch!

th (breathy)           th (vocal)

sh                           ch

Activity:

Write down these words and underline all the digraphs you can find.  For individual sounds write a sound dot under it.  Then you can push the sound buttons and digraphs in order and blend the sounds together to read the word!  For an example, click here.

1. shut
2. chill
3. this
4. think
5. chat
6. shake
7. thimble
8. child

Now try to read this sentence using your knowledge of your new digraphs:

This child feels quite chilly in this shack.  Even the sheep feel chilly.  He shut the door to the shack and then thought, “This is better!”.

 

MORE DIGRAPHS!  All these digraphs say the same sound and are very common.  ER is often found at the end of a word, whereas ir and ur are often found in the middle, but this is certainly NOT the rule!

Click on the digraphs to view a video.  Please do not download videos. They are for viewing purposes only.  Thank you.

 

er        ir       ur

 

 

 

 

if you want to print it out and use as a worksheet, Click here.

 

 

 

Click on the digraphs below to hear the sound!

 

au / aw          oi            oy

 

activity:

au/aw activity sheet can be found here.

 

 

If you want to print this out and use it as a worksheet, CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

 

This week’s digraphs are oo (which can have two sounds), ee and or.  Click on the digraph below to hear the alphabet rap!

A saying that sometimes helps with a digraph containing two (different) vowels is: “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking”  which means often when you have two different vowels side by side, the digraph takes on the HARD or LONG sound of the first vowel.

 

00         oo         ee / or

 

Activity

Ask your parents or older sibling to help you choose an appropriate newspaper clipping or magazine article (one that noone minds if you write on it!).  Get a writing utensil and search through the article for any oo, or, and ee digraphs and UNDERLINE these digraphs.  See how many you can find!

CHALLENGE: Go back over all the digraphs you found and see if you can sound out each word.  You may even see other digraphs from last week that you can include in your search.

 

Think of the above vowel saying for these next three digraphs! “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking”.

 

oa                    ai                       ea

ow                   ay                      ee

 

o_e                  a_e   

These two directly above are not digraphs but rather an alternative way of producing the same sound.  The line represents the place where a consonant would be.

 

Activity Sheets:

OA / OW / O-E Activity Sheet

AY / AI  / A-E Activity Sheet

EE  / EA  Activity Sheet

 

 

Some trickier digraphs here so keep trying and practicing!

 

ou / ow            ue / ew / u_e

 

ie             igh          ar

 

here are the activity sheets for:

ue / ew

ou / ow

igh / ie

 

TRIGRAPHS

So if you think you are ready to move on to trigraphs then have a look at these below.  Trigraphs are 3 letters that make one sound when put together.

ure        air          ear