Our instruction here should go from simple to complex.

• We typically begin with ‘ch’ and ‘sh’ because there are many words that students can read and spell with those digraphs. Next we move to ‘th,’ which is also common in words that students can read and spell but is a bit trickier because it makes both a voiced and unvoiced sound.
• We teach ‘wh’ and ‘ph’ later on in the sequence because there are not many words this early in the sequence with those digraphs that students can read and spell.
• We begin having students read one-syllable words with digraphs before moving to multisyllabic words. 

Select the Digraph for Focus

When first introducing digraphs, we typically introduce one at a time. We teach lessons for ‘ch’, ‘sh’, ‘th’ first because there are many words that can be read and spelled with these digraphs and the consonants and vowel sounds that students have been taught. 

‘Ph’ and ‘wh’ are not generally taught early in the sequence because there are very few words that students can decode with those digraphs (graph, when, whiz). At this point in the continuum, we teach the sounds for ‘wh’ and ‘ph’ and can include them in flash card warm up, but we do not teach full lessons for reading and spelling words with these digraphs.

In first and second grade we can focus more on the digraphs ‘wh’ and ‘ph’ as they appear more  frequently in question words that students see in text, and hear in words like phonics, photo, and phone. 

In first grade, choose one digraph to focus on at a time. If working with older students, depending on their ability you can teach multiple digraphs together. 

Consider Teaching Strategies to Use in Your Lesson

The Reading Universe lesson plans integrate specific teaching strategies for teaching children to spell and read words and sentences with consonant digraphs, including flash cards, and the roller coaster and build-a-word strategies. We use a combination of these strategies as we have students practice sounds, words in isolation, phrases, and sentences. 

Here is an example of how to use the build-a-word strategy to spell words with digraphs.

Gather the Materials You Will Need

Here are some materials you might need for your lessons, including numerous sets of flash cards that you can download.

To begin, here is a list of words, phrases and sentences with digraphs that you can use during your lesson planning.

These letter flash cards with pictures help students remember the sound that the digraphs represent.

Once students are closer to automaticity, you can replace the card with the picture with the card that only has the digraph letters like these below.

Our resource hub has word lists, read sheets, and decodables for practicing digraphs.