Once I finish teaching my students letter-sound correspondences using my phonics routine and reinforcing long and short vowel sounds. I move to teaching them consonant digraphs. These are two consonants that make one sound- wh, sh, ch, th.

Just like with my phonics routine and vowel review, I used a systematic way to learn and practice them.

Say it

When we first learn the consonant digraph, I have them practice saying the sound:

I Say It I say the sound for them, making sure they see how my mouth is moving to form the sound

We Say It I say the sound with my class, again putting a focus on the mouth

You Say It This is an opportunity for my students to practice saying the sound on their own. I look and listen to make sure all my students are making the sound correctly

Anchor Images

Next, we move to words with the sound in them (sloth). I make sure to accentuate the sound whenever I say it within a word so that my students can hear it.

Our Own Words

Finally, we come up with our own words with the digraph sounds. My students sometimes need prompting with this part as they become more familiar with the sounds.

Practice Consonant Digraphs

Once we have learned a digraph, then I add it to the sounds that we review at the start of all my literacy meetings. I also used my Stamp the Digraph activity for a guided group to see if there are any misconceptions about the sounds.

Make learning about digraphs easy with this slide deck with everything you need already in one place!