Read a consonant digraph

Supplied materials

• Paper and pencil, or a browser text area. All named people/events/records are fictional learning inputs.
• Worked case: Target: ship. Blend: stop. Final-e: cape. Team: rain.
• Primary check: Target: chip. Blend: blue. Final-e: bike. Team: feet.
• An adult may read every direction and answer choice aloud; learners may respond by speaking, pointing or drawing.
• Additional fully supplied decoding bank: short vowels—cat, bed, sit, hot, cup; blends—stop, black, grin, trip, flag, drum; digraphs—ship, chip, thin, when; final-e—cape, bike, home, cube; long-vowel teams—rain, play, feet, eat, boat, snow. In snow, ow represents long o; in cow it has a different sound. Choose one small pattern group, underline its pattern, read each word, and contrast one changed word such as cap/cape.

Learn the idea

A digraph uses two letters for one consonant sound. The beginnings of ship, chip, thin and when differ even though each uses two letters.

Say the word, underline its first two letters and blend that sound with the remaining sounds.

Example to read or listen to: Target: ship. Blend: stop. Final-e: cape. Team: rain. The answer is sh. The relevant input states: Target: ship. This fits sh. A digraph uses two letters for one consonant sound. The beginnings of ship, chip, thin and when differ even though each uses two letters. Do not read sh as separate /s/ and /h/ sounds.

1. Read or listen to the worked example. Say what the reading or writing task asks you to find. An adult can help with unfamiliar words.
2. Say the word, underline its first two letters and blend that sound with the remaining sounds.
3. Check the worked solution: sh. The relevant input states: Target: ship. This fits sh. A digraph uses two letters for one consonant sound. The beginnings of ship, chip, thin and when differ even though each uses two letters. Do not read sh as separate /s/ and /h/ sounds.
4. Try the question and the practice questions. Point to the words that helped you choose before checking the feedback.

Check your reasoning

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Take it further

Optional extra practice: Read this original sentence with adult support: The sheep sees rain from the boat. Label or underline sh and th, circle ee, ai and oa, and explain that those teams each make one sound in these words. Write a new sentence using bike and tree. Practice this lesson’s skill as you complete the task. Use this idea to check your work: A digraph uses two letters for one consonant sound. The beginnings of ship, chip, thin and when differ even though each uses two letters.

Nothing here is saved to an account or sent to a teacher. The answer download includes your current choice and any checked feedback. It does not include choices from the separate More practice section. Download that section separately.