Last Updated on September 4, 2024 by Editorial Team
When your Kindergarten kids have mastered the skills of blending, spelling, and reading words, you may be thinking, “Where do I proceed from here?” Digraphs or consonant mixes are the following phonics skills you can focus on with your kids.
Digraphs are two characters that form the same sound, such as the letters th, sh, ch, wh, ph, and ck. You might wish to devote about 2-3 weeks in Kindergarten to digraphs, studying the structures and sounds for each, reading words using digraphs, and even constructing simple words with digraphs. So you’ll just be adding additional words for your children to understand and read!
This post will show you some of the interesting digraph exercises for Kindergarten kids. These digraph activities can be used in a whole group class, as a center activity, or as independent practice!
How do you explain a digraph to a kindergartner in an easy and engaging way?
There are plenty of ways using which you can kick start this journey in a fun and engaging way with your kids, including online and offline games.
1. Circle them!
A teacher can orally utter the word “Ship” and then ask the children which digraph they heard- “sh.” Once answered correctly, ask them to find the words starting with the digraph “sh” in their book and circle them using a pencil or a crayon. Encourage them to find as many as they can and share it with their friends too.
This activity is simple, fun, and engaging if done in a group format. Kids can practice spelling and enhance their observational skills. This helps children identify the digraph sounds, which will assist them later when they start reading sentences with bigger words in it.
2. Words Time Me Out
This is another digraph indulgence that will make kids better at reading and spotting words. Keeping it very simple and basic, teachers need to hand out a print of paragraphs or maybe 10 different sentences filled with digraphs. Once distributed, students need to read the printout (in their own mind) and circle the digraphs spotted per sentence.
However, this task comes with a twist of a timer! Teachers need to provide say 60 seconds for this task to be performed in time. At the end of it, teachers can reveal the answers per sentence. The ones with the most correct digraphs confirm their hold at it.
However, if in case there are digraphs left that students weren’t able to mark, then as an educator, the teacher must narrate its essentiality and conform how it works. Through this fun and engaging way of reading, concepts of consonant-centric digraphs will become easy to learn, given that vowel-centric digraphs are rather commonly used.
3. Dot Painting
Dot Painting is a classic way to help kids learn digraphs better. It is so versatile and easy that young learners absolutely love it. To perform this play, kids must have dot markers, stickers, stamps, Wikki Stix, or even crayons with them to make their share of pictures. Teachers, or if done at home, parents can start by reading out elements that have a digraph in them. For example, “fish”, chick” and so on. Kids need to spot them one-by-one per narration and circle them elements using their markers, stickers, stamps, or crayons. And there you are! Finishing and acing it like a pro.
This activity will help kids learn how to spell words that contain digraphs by sounding out the word and then placing a sticker or dot on each letter sound they hear. Funneling the “listen, command, and perform” skill better, is a colorful way to make them understand digraphs easily.
4. Dictation Stamps
Once kids are acquainted with the concept of digraphs, they can indulge in this suggested form of learning by following mere dictation practices with a twist. Teachers can start by asking simple riddles to the children. For example, “I live underwater and I can swim. I can breathe air like you and I am thin. I have feathers and they call them fins, guess my name dear friend, who I am?” The answer is Fish.
Once kids have determined the answer, teachers can ask them to draw a fish on their notebook and spell it out too. This is a fun dictation way of practicing digraphs that will challenge the kids to use their sensory and logical skills to solve the riddles and then have fun drawing, coloring, and spelling the element at ease. This humble way of learning involves- art, craft, writing, reading, listening, and aptitude side-by-side.
Vowel digraph list for kindergarten
- ow – as in know or snow
- ui – as in fruit or bruise
- oe – as in toe or goes
- oa – as in boat or road
- ea – as in thread or lead
- ee – as in feet or sheet
- ie – as in pie or lie
- ue – as in glue or fuel
- ai – as in gain or main
- oo – as in wood or flood
- au – as in fault or pause
- oi – as in soil or coin
- ay – as in play or stay
- ou – as in soup or sour
- aw – as in straw or crawl
- ey – as in they or prey
- oy – as in boy or toy
- ei – as in vein or ceiling
- ir – as in girl or bird
- ew – as in few or new
Consonant digraphs
- CH – as in Chin and Switch
- SH – as in Shut and Bash
- TH – as in Thin and Bath
- GH – as in Ghats and rough
- PH – as in Phone and Graph
- NG – as in Sing and Ring
- KN – as in Know and Knife
- FA – as in Fact and Alfa
- ME– as in Meal and Frame
- WH- as in Whale and What
- CK – as in Back or Duck
- FF – as in Cliff or Off
- SS – as in Dress or Class
- QU – as in Quack or Quiz
- WR – as in Wrist or Wrong
- DG – as in Judge or Fridge
- LL – as in Well or Doll
- MN – as in Hymn or Autumn
- GN – as in Design or Sign
- RH – as in Rhyme or Rhino
How to use this list?
Children are usually taught digraphs once they have mastered the individual sounds of consonants and short vowels. During first and second grade, digraphs are reviewed. The teachers can hand over these lists to the students without the bold. The kids can then underline the consonants or vowels using colored pencils.
They can first start with consonant worksheets and then move on to vowel worksheets. Gradually, after enough practice, the teachers can also test the children by giving them a vowel, and they can write the words which come to their mind. Again, it’s crucial to note that practice and enough practice can help them become fluent in this.
Summing up,
Digraphs is a very interesting concept to start teaching your kids. It’s important that we have the right start so that they don’t lose interest throughout. Teachers may often point out different digraphs to students while they read books.
They might be handed word cards to sort into groups based on their digraphs. They will also be provided phonic activities to assist them in creating words that contain specific digraphs. It is critical that kids get the chance to practice writing words so as to learn proper spelling.
Armed with a degree in Psychotherapy, CBT and Happiness coaching I have been a counselor for troubled children and their parents for over 4 years. Having a dyslexic child at home made the journey more personal. I have worked at Manovikas kendra for a year as a part time volunteer. In the process I have helped many children overcome learning disabilities and other psychological constraints to lead a fulfilling life! My most tangible victory is my dyslexic child has completed her plus two with over 80% marks and now has trained as a chef from the best college in Asia.