Th & Sh Digraph Fun

The digraphs “sh” and “th” are notorious for being difficult for children to differentiate and pronounce correctly.  Carolyn, of Wise Owl Factory has created some interactive notebooking pages to help your children learn them while having some fun at the same time!  The best part is, it’s absolutely FREE simply by signing up to Wise Owl Factory’s Blog emails! (just put your name and email into the form on the right-hand side of her website).  This is a sponsored post.

Kallista has been working on pronouncing the “th” sound, and reading the “sh” sound, so this resource has come along at the perfect time for us.

This is a great print and go resource.  It takes very little preparation other than gathering the usual school supplies of scissors, glue, crayons and a pencil.  If you’d like to read the room, you’ll also need a little funtak to hold your words in place.  As you can see, we did most of our work on this project at the library so we borrowed some of their book stands that weren’t in use.

The following digraph elements are included:

• word sounds sorting
• pocket chart cards
• teaching posters
• read the room cards
• interactive sh and th elements for notebooks or lapbooks

The following are some of the digraph activities that are included:

• begining and ending sh and th sounds
• sorting
• alphabetising
• printing
• cutting
• colouring

Both beginning and ending sounds are included.  This is a great idea as I’ve found with my children that it’s easier for them to learn the begining “th” and “sh” sounds, but it takes a little longer for them to become consistent in using the same sounds in the middle or ends of words.

If you have a larger amount of time, you could have your children do one sound a day.  Or you could set up an activity a day or a week to extend the learning and fun, which is probably the better way to do it.

You can use these items in either a language arts notebook, or create a lapbook for them.  My children enjoy lapbooks, so this is the route we took.  It was easy to do, the children simply chose a piece of cardstock (you could use construction paper instead), and folded it in half.  Each student’s notebook will be different by adding in their own personality and style to their books.

Once all of your pieces are in your notebook or lapbook, the fun doesn’t have to end.  Children can continue to refer back to the pages when needed, or for extra matching and sounding practice.

Carolyn has made it easy to adapt these activities to different levels.  Kallista can practice the “th” sound and just print those letters.  Meanwhile, Tristan is printing the entire words by either reading the room or sounding them out.  There is also a sheet on which after you’ve printed out the words that go with the pictures, they are then put into alphabetical order.

This resource is also good for honing up on fine-motor skills by letting the children cut all of the pieces on their own.  Tristan did a great job, but I helped Kallista along a little when she needed it…And it was a little more difficult to cut accurately on the train!  Yes, Kallista loved this activity so much that she insisted we take it with us to do on our way to a girl’s day out.  In fact, she was upset that we didn’t get a table on the way home so she could do some more!

There are multiple ways to use each element, depending on the level of each student.  All of the foldable pieces make this an interesting project for children.  The pockets that are included for holding the matching words and pictures also helps to make this a very re-usable activity.

Carolyn Wilhelm has taught grades Kindergarten to 6, including gifted education and thinking skills, so she knows about how children learn, and the rest of us are fortunate to be able to use her creative resources.  This resource is absolutely FREE, all you need to do is sign up to receive emails from Wise Owl Factory and you’ll have instant access to it.

And if you like this pack, then head over to The Wise Owl Factory and sign up as a premium member and you’ll be able to access the Ch-Sh-Th-Wh Digraph Print and Go pack and many more top-quality products.

Don’t forget to investigate all of the other fabulous resources Carolyn has created at Wise Owl Factory and Teachers Pay Teachers.

You can connect with Carolyn through her Wise Owl Factory website, The Wise Owl Factory Blog, Facebook, her G+ Profile or Pinterest.

If you’d like to see more of Carolyn’s resources, we’ve used these in the past: When I Grow Up I Want To Be…posters,  No Prep Graphing Through The Year, Pick A Pocket of Prairie, and the children had fun colouring and learning about grammar with her Harry and The Hot Lava resources.