Teaching digraphs in the kindergarten classroom doesn’t have to be tricky — in fact, it can be downright fun! With the right mix of engaging digraph activities and thoughtfully designed digraph worksheets, you can help your young learners build strong reading foundations while keeping things playful and purposeful. In this post, I’m sharing my favorite ways to introduce and practice digraphs with tips, resources, and classroom-tested ideas that work!
Why are digraphs important?
So why are digraphs such a big deal in early reading? According to the Science of Reading, strong phonics instruction is essential for building fluent, confident readers, and digraphs are an important part of that puzzle. They teach students that sometimes two letters come together to form a single phoneme (like /sh/ or /ch/), which helps deepen their understanding of how our sound-symbol system works in the English language.
This is an important concept for students to understand because it won’t be the last time they find letters making different sounds. From digraphs and vowel teams, to words that defy all the rules, students must understand that letters don’t just make one sound.
Research shows that students who receive explicit, systematic phonics instruction — including instruction on common digraphs — are better equipped to decode unfamiliar words, improve reading fluency and comprehension, and develop stronger spelling skills. Digraphs expand the range of words students can read and write, boosting both their confidence and comprehension. Plus, they help support phonemic awareness by teaching kids to listen for and identify more complex sound patterns within words.
When to begin teaching digraphs?
Once your students have a solid grasp of individual letter sounds and are blending simple CVC words with confidence, it’s a great time to introduce digraphs. Think of them as the next building block in your phonics instruction. Teaching digraphs like ch, sh, th, wh, and ph gives students access to tons of new words they’ll see in everyday reading — and once they crack that code, their confidence skyrockets. Plus, recognizing digraphs helps students spell more accurately and improves their overall phonemic awareness. Win-win!
As exciting as it is to help our students learn to read, don’t be in a rush to introduce digraphs or take them to the next step. Students need a solid foundation of letter sounds and short vowel words before moving on. Without this, leading them into the world of “additional sounds” can just be confusing.
Since we all know that students learn to read at different rates, small group instruction can be very helpful. This way, each student can begin to learn about digraphs when they are ready for the new challenge.
Tips for Introducing Digraphs
1. Start with the Most Common Digraphs
Begin with high-frequency digraphs like sh, ch, th, and wh. These show up often in early texts, so learning them will help new readers take their decoding skills to the next level. Once those feel solid, you can introduce others like ph, kn, wr, or ck.
2. Focus on the Sound
To help students grasp the digraph concept, it is important to focus on the sound. A great way to begin is by doing some auditory games where students will count the number of sounds they hear. Words like chat, ship, this, and whip work great. After counting the sounds, blow their little minds by writing the word on the board so they can see that the number of sounds and the number of letters don’t match. This is a great introductory game that gets them excited to learn more.
3. Treat Digraphs as Word Chunks
Once students know that they are looking for two letters that make one sound, we need to give them lots of opportunities to find these digraph ‘chunks’ in words. I like to give students the task of being a digraph detective. Students will search through a text, highlighting or circling all of the digraphs they find. This repetition helps them develop automaticity when it comes to seeing the digraph. And it is this automaticity that will lead to fluent reading.
Now that we know the why and how of teaching digraphs, let’s dive into some fun digraph worksheets and activities that will help your students learn to identify and read digraphs.
Effective Digraph Worksheets and Activities
1. Interactive Notebook Activities for Digraphs
For many years, I had myself convinced that using an interactive notebook with kindergarteners with impossible. Then I tried it! Using many of the same teaching and modeling techniques I use when we complete a science or social studies lapbook, I began using interactive notebooks in my reading groups. I love that students create an ongoing notebook of all the phonics skills they are learning. And. . . it gives them a tool they can refer back to if needed.
When teaching digraphs, I always start with the interactive notebook. These print and go digraph worksheets add an element of hands-on learning to the mix. When I first introduce digraphs, we focus on the sound. So I like to begin with a couple of activities that do the same. The very first thing we do is decorate the digraph. This quick activity gives us a nice heading box for our new digraph. Then we complete two picture based activities where students say the word for the picture and listen for the digraph sound. One activity has them coloring the picture if it has the target digraph sound, and the other has them sorting pictures based on the target sound. Both of them give lots of opportunities to start hearing and practicing the sound the digraph makes.
Next up, we move on to identifying the digraph by its letters. I love the Highlight and Trace activity because it gets students searching for the digraph as a chunk in the word. Then they can practice writing words with the digraph. There’s also a digraph sorting activity that uses words instead of pictures.
The Interactive Notebook packet also includes 20 other digraph worksheets and activities that help students practice each digraph in a fun and engaging way. I like to use one activity each day as we work on the target digraph in our small group. If needed, I can assign an additional activity that can be completed during a center rotation.
2. Digraph Cover It Up!
If you aren’t familiar with the Cover It Up! game, then let me tell you a little about it. These are my go-to small group starting activities for almost every skill I teach. It’s the perfect way to get students started reviewing a skill or concept while I monitor the transition to our new center activity.
At the top of each Digraph Cover It Up! Mat is the target skill – in this case, the digraph we are reviewing. The game board has a variety of pictures. Students will say the picture word, listening for the digraph sound. If they hear it, they cover up the picture using a small manipulative. When we are ready to get started, I can take a quick look at each game board and see how students are doing on the digraph.
This no prep digraph worksheet is one that students love because of its game-like feel. I love how easy they are to prep and use. I have them printed and ready to go, so I can quickly pull the target still when needed.
3. Make a Square Partner Game
Let’s be honest — anytime I can turn phonics into play, it’s a win. That’s exactly why I love using these Let’s Make a Square games during small group or as a center game for partners. Played like the traditional Connect the Dots game, students take turns adding a line to connect the dots on the game board. The magic happens when they add the final line that creates a square. The student must identify the picture or read the word inside the square they just made. Then they identify the digraph before coloring in the square.
This Let’s Make a Square resource includes a variety of game boards and activity sheets that give students tons of meaningful practice with beginning digraphs like ch, sh, th, and wh. Whether we’re playing in a small group or during a center rotation, these games help reinforce digraphs in a way that sticks — and the mix of visuals and word work makes it easy to differentiate.
4. Digraph Worksheets with a Twist
If your students love to color (and let’s be real — whose don’t?), they’re going to love these Color by Code Digraph Worksheets. Each page gives students a chance to identify digraphs, then color the picture using the code at the top.
These digraph activities are great for using after you introduce a new digraph. They focus on listening for the digraph sound and then deciding if it is or is not the right sound. While students are engaged through the coloring, they are getting multiple repetitions of digraph identification practice.
This resource also includes color by code activities for beginning blends, so you can get lots of use from it throughout the school year. Your students will love these blends and digraph worksheets.
Teaching Digraphs is Fun!
Teaching digraphs is a fun step in the reading process. As students add this decoding skill to their repertoire, the world of more words opens to them. By following these simple tips and weaving in a variety of activities that will help your students learn the digraph sound and letter chunk, your students will be on their way to reading digraphs with ease.
If you are looking for engaging digraph worksheets and activities to use in your classroom, you can find all of the activities I use in my TPT store.
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