Digraphs Vs. Blends: Tips For Teaching Students The Difference

Let’s talk about digraphs and blends! These can be pretty tricky for new readers. The difference between the two is subtle and could easily confuse them. So how do we teach them in a way that is effective and easy to remember for little learners?

Let’s start with the basics! Here are some common questions teachers have about digraphs and blends.

1. “What is the difference between blends and digraphs?”

A BLEND is when each sound of two or more consonants can be heard as they are blended together. For example, /pl/ as in play. You say (and teach) /pl/ but the /p/ and /l/ can be heard as separate phonemes. Each letter within the blend is pronounced individually, but quickly, so they blend together.

A DIGRAPH is when two consonants together make a single sound. For example, if you tell someone to be quiet by saying “shhhhhh”, you say it as one sound. You don’t say /s/ /h/.

2. What are the most common blends and what order should I teach them?

BLENDS

The most common beginning consonant blends include: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fr, tr, fl, gl, gr, pl, pr, sl, sm, sp and st.

Click to download a FREE Beginning Blends Poster.

There is a great deal of variance as to which blends to teach first. Even many basal reading programs disagree. Yet, it is thought that the following is a good guideline of which to teach first: gr, pl, bl, st, br, sp, tr, cl, fl, sl, fr, sn, thr, cr, dr, sm. HOWEVER, this differs with the level of students you teach and the most important thing to remember is to teach intentionally!

There are also ending consonant blends in words such as fast.

Click to download a FREE poster for Ending Blends Poster.

Some blends contain three consonants (clusters) such as str,spl, spr, shr, scr, squ, str. It is thought that these clusters along with nk and sk should be taught later rather than at the beginning.

3. What are the most common digraphs and what order should I teach them?

DIGRAPHS

We like to call the most common consonant digraphs the “h” brothers. The most common are sh, ch, th, and wh but there also is ph. The most common to teach first are the “Big 4”! Many reading programs introduce blends before the digraphs.

The main thing to remember is you need to teach whatever your district says! This goes for blends (clusters) AND digraphs.

Click to download a FREE Digraph Poster.

4. What is the correct spelling and pronunciation of DIGRAPH?

It is spelled d-i- g-r-a-p-h and pronounced dī- graf. There is no “a” as in d-i-a-g-r-a-p-h. It is not pronounced dī-uh-graf.

In conclusion, learning digraphs and blends are important in learning to read. Go by your district, your campus, or your reading program to guide you with when and how to introduce them. We all have our opinions but we must go by the guidelines our employers give us.

Click HERE for a FREE digraph resource with activities and worksheets aimed at 1st-2nd graders and upper Kindergarten students.

If you like these digraph freebies, you’ll love the bundle!

It’s a 329-page bundle for the digraphs ck, kn, ph, wr, sh, ch, wh, th with activities, center activities, and worksheets. The bundle is more than 20% off with a FREE assessment pack. The assessment pack is only available as part of the bundle deal. I don’t think you will need anything else for the entire year to teach digraphs.

It has everything, from small group work to games to centers. Games make great small group activities and give you the chance to do formative assessments as you monitor and guide the children during the game!

Find the hidden word pages make great centers. Before laminating the picture, cut off the bottom recording sheet. You can copy two recording sheets per 8.5×11 sheet of paper to put at the center with the laminated picture and a few magnifying glasses. Kids LOVE using the magnifying glasses to play “word detectives.”

This huge bundle of resources was created in collaboration with Teacher’s Toolkit, The Fun Factory, and Practice Makes Perfect. We put our over 80 years (gasp) of combined experience together to come up with activities that will engage, excite, and challenge your students.

Do you have any tricks for teaching digraphs? Let me know in the comments!

How and Why To Use Scrambled Sentences In Elementary

There are many factors that go into reading comprehension. There’s decoding, vocabulary, grammar, fluency, and sentence structure, to name a few (check out my post here to learn how teach reading to follow directions).

Sentence structure sounds simple, but for younger students, it can be a challenging topic. They have to understand the components of a sentence and how to put them together in a way that sounds fluent and natural. That’s no easy task!

Sentence structure is important because the way sentences are put together can make a huge difference in meaning. This is also a huge part of developing writing skills. When students understand sentence structure, they become better writers!

One of the best ways to work on sentence structure is by using scrambled sentences.

This is a pretty popular method, for a good reason! It works! Students will get practice with capitalization, comprehension, fluency, content, sight words, and punctuation. To do this, give your students parts of a sentence for them to arrange into the right order.

I love using these in my classroom because they are so easy to use and versatile. You can base them around themes and can be used for small group instruction, centers, or for individual practice at a desk.

In my experience, students LOVE trying to figure out how to arrange the words into sentences.

Another reason these are so versatile is that you can base them on common, grade-level appropriate sight words that can be practiced over and over in context.

Interested in trying them out for yourself? Check out my free Cinderella Scrambled Sentences Resource.

This FREE themed sentence scramble has a total of 33 cards for students to arrange in the correct order to build a sentence and then write them.

If you love them, make sure to check out the full bundle!

You’ll get 13 scrambled sentences products with different themes. Halloween, Fairy Tales, Thanksgiving, Sight Words, Presidents Day, Martin Luther King, and more!

All of these activities are perfect for first, second, or third grade students. I love these because they are effective and easy for teachers to prepare and organize for centers.

Are you using scrambled sentences in your lessons? Let me know in the comments!

The Importance Of Reading To Follow Directions

In first and second grade, students are starting to get the hang of reading. We spend so much time focusing on reading-level books and reading comprehension. It is so important!

reading to follow directions

However, another important part of learning to read is reading to follow directions!

As first or second grade teachers, we may be surprised to find that students didn’t follow directions. They continue to ask questions about how to do things even though the instructions have been explained and listed.

Reading to follow directions is a skill that students need to learn. They don’t just naturally understand it when they learn to read. Their whole lives so far, they have learned what to do by being told or shown. This is a new way of communicating so it is important to focus on this in the earlier grades so they are able to use this skill in day-to-day life.

reading to follow directions

Here are some ways you can teach your students how to read to follow directions.

Always list directions on the board. This may seem obvious, but it’s important so it is worth mentioning. Use big letters and a numbered list to help them understand the format.
Go over commonly used words in directions that they may not know. Something that can trip them up big time with reading to follow directions is words they don’t know or are struggling to sound out. Looking at instructions full of words they don’t understand can be overwhelming and discouraging for them. Going over those words ahead of time will boost their confidence.
Use worksheets that have instructions listed on them. Tell students that the instructions are on the worksheets so they can read it to find out how to complete it.
Make it fun with games! Create centers that focus on reading directions. In each center, include the instructions for a simple game that students have to read in order to play. You can also pair students up, and have them race to read their instructions to complete a task first. There are so many possibilities!

Reading to follow directions is a skill that students will need for their whole lives. College assignments, job applications, instruction manuals, the list goes on! Practicing and perfecting this skill early on is vital and will set them up for success later on.

Another great way to practice this skill is with this Reading To Follow Directions resource!

This bundle comes with activities for every month of the year that will have your students perfecting their reading to follow directions skills.

Students demonstrate reading comprehension by simply reading sentences and coloring a picture to follow the directions.

They can read the sheet using many sight words and then follow the directions to color pictures. It’s fun and creative!

Try out some free activities with my FREE 120 Day of School Read To Follow Directions resource.

You can also try out my Veterans Day Read and Follow Directions resource here!

reading to follow directions

Looking for more back to school resources and tips? Check out my post here!

How To Use Mathematical Glyphs In The Classroom

Have you ever used glyphs in your classroom? Do you know what a “glyph” is?

A glyph is “the specific shape, design, or representation of a character”. This representation is a collection of visual objects. These visual objects are collectively called a Glyph.

Glyphs are fun activities and worksheets that keep kids engaged, focused, and help students learn to decode data .

These skills are important in math, science, and social studies. Glyphs build skills, like counting, time, directionality, and practice reading comprehension. Students read and follow directions.

Teachers Love Glyphs Because:

They are NO PREP.
They require students to use reading skills. It is especially helpful when the glyph legends used are written using sight words. That way students are practicing reading their sight words in context.
Graphing glyphs by different attributes each day means several days of lessons from just 1 glyph!

glyphs

Students Love Glyphs Because:

They get to color, cut, and assemble. (Some glyphs are just color.)
They get to post their glyph where everyone can see and they can see how many others are alike or different.
Glyphs are interactive and the students change their glyph daily to graph for a different attribute.

glyphs

How to Use Glyphs in the Classroom

So how have I used glyphs in the classroom? There are so many different ways that I could probably write a book! However, here are just a few ideas. Please note that these ideas are done over several lessons.

glyphs

First, in whole group instruction, I discuss what glyphs are and why we use them. Next, I draw a picture as an example on chart paper. Then I use the students to make a graph. For example, I line all the boys up on one side of the room and all the girls up on the other side. After that, we discuss the differences in mathematical terms.

glyphs

“Which do we have more of, girls or boys? How many more ____ than ___? Can we make a math sentence to show this information?”

Many times I use glyphs in my small group instruction. This of course depends on the level of students I am teaching. Other times I place the glyph in a center as a “Have-To” activity. Students can also complete their glyph as independent work and save them until math time when we begin to graph the results.

Depending on the month, I show students the glyph and explain how to follow the directions on the legend. Some months are “color only”, some are “color and cut out”, others are “color, cut out, assemble”, and then others are “color, cut out, assemble and complete a picture.”

glyphs

After all students have completed their glyph, I choose an attribute for graphing. For example, “Today we are going to graph by the color of your eyes.” Each day I choose a different attribute from the legend. For about the 1st five minutes of math, we discuss the graphing information. Sometimes there is a class graph that we also fill out daily.

Depending on the level of students, I have them write statements with their data. For example, “I am a girl. I like school.”

Preschool and Kindergarten Students LOVE Glyphs Too!

Glyphs can be used with any age group. If you teach Pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten, use glyphs in your small group instruction as a “listening and following directions” lesson. Then use title cards with pictures so they can graph their glyphs independently. I use painter’s tape so the paper doesn’t tear when they remove their glyphs.

TIPS FOR TEACHERS

In conclusion, here are some things to keep in mind when using glyphs:

Teach students what glyphs are and how to graph results
Preview the legend to be sure it is appropriate for the level of students you teach
Decide how you want students to complete their glyph – small group, centers, or independently
Choose an attribute each day to graph by
Discuss graphing results in mathematical terms – greater than, less than, how many more, how many less, half of the class, fewer than, more than, etc.
Depending on the level of your students, have them write statements about their data

NOTE: Unless the glyph is used as a center activity, I ALWAYS staple the legend to the back of the glyph. This is so that parents will see the educational value and not think the child is just coloring at school.

If you have never tried glyphs, grab your FREE glyph HERE!

If you and your students enjoy this, take a look to see glyphs for each month of the school year plus more! You can find individual months or you can find them all together in a money-saving bundle.

For another fun activity, check out my Fairytale Glyphs Activities and Centers here!

For more fun in the classroom, check out my post here on how to make a game spinner!