Phonics, Spelling, & Grammar Resources

Looking for FUN Digraph Activities for your phonics teaching program? Then check these out! You’ll also get a quick guide to explain what digraphs are, and how and when to teach them to your kids!

A digraph is a combination of two letters that make a single sound like sh in shell or fish.

Digraph sounds are different to the individual sounds of the letters. They cannot be sounded out, which hinders reading fluency. 

Digraphs can be made up of vowels or consonants and are taught as part of phonics programs in Kindergarten, Reception, Preps and First Grade.

They are not found just at the beginning of words, they can also be in the middle or make the final sound in words too.

Learning to recognise digraphs will help young readers to develop fluency in reading.

Difference Between Digraphs and Blends

Digraphs and blends can easily be confused because both digraphs and blends consist of two letters to make a sound.

But there is a BIG difference between a digraph and blend…

A digraph contains two consonants and only makes one sound such as sh, /sh/. (ch, wh, th, ck)

A blend contains two consonants but they each make their own sound, such as /s/ and /l/, /sl/ (st, fl, sk, gr, sw, ect.)

Put simply each sound can be heard in a blend, but you cannot hear both letters in a digraph. No matter the type of Phonics Program you use, e.g. Letters and Sounds, Dianna Rigg, Jolly Phonics, Soundwaves, or Thrass, children should be shown that the same sound can be represented in a different way.  For example, pay, aim, grey, all have the /ai/ sound but they use a different digraph.

Consonant and Vowel Digraphs

Consonant digraphs are typically found at the beginning (initial) and end of words (final), here are some examples: ch, ck, kn, ph, sh, the, wh, wr

Vowel digraphs are typically found in the middle of words. (medial) They are made by two letters with at least one being a vowel, they are often known as vowel teams. Here are some examples: ai, ay, all, ea, ee, ie igh, oa, oe, oo, ow, ue, ui. They are often known as vowel teams.

Check out our Digraph Word Lists Below.

Digraph Activities

We have a MEGA collection of Digraph teaching resources that we created by separate letter combinations. We also have some MIxed digraph games for students to learn beginning and ending digraph letter combinations at the same time. Click the images below to get started!

Related: Digital Online Digraph Games