Multisensory Monday- Colorful Digraphs, a Digraph Activity

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Multisensory Monday!  I love doing these posts because I know you guys love them.  It makes my day every time I meet a teacher who mentions that they tried an idea from the blog!  Today’s multisensory activity is in response to a teacher who asked for a digraph activity.

Remember to comment or email me with suggestions or requests for activities for specific skills.

Colorful Digraphs

Today’s activity is something I use to introduce the concept of a digraph to students.  In Phonics First Foundations, the first digraph I teach is ch but this idea can be used for any of the digraphs.

A digraph is when two letters come together to make a new sound: ch, sh, th, qu, wh.  The key idea students need to remember is that these letters make a new sound.  (When letters come together and make a combination of their sounds it’s called a blend.)

To help students understand this, I relate it to mixing together 2 different colors.  For this I use 2 small cups with water, food coloring and a bowl.  

Using ch for my demonstration, here is how I explain it:

“When we see ch together, they make a new sound, a different sound than c or h.  It’s like mixing together two different colors to get a new color.

C usually has it’s own sound.  So let’s pretend the sound for c is like the color blue.

H usually has it’s own sound too.  Let’s pretend the sound for h is the color yellow.

When c and h come together though, they make a new sound.  Just like we get a new color when we mix blue and yellow.

Let’s mix our 2 colors and see what we get…Green!  Blue and yellow make a new color, just like c and h make a new sound!”

You can do the same thing with paint as well.  I find this demonstration really helps students understand digraphs.  Since I stress again and again how they make a new sound, I don’t often have trouble with students saying something like /c//h/ when asked to give the sound for ch.  I also find that it helps them quickly pick up on the term “digraph” so that they are able to use it properly and know what I’m referring to when I say the term.

Syllable Division Uno

Dite has a game that would be great for small groups today that practices syllable division patterns.  Uno is one of my favorite games, so I can’t wait to play this version.  The game is played just like Uno: you have to play a card that matches the number in the corner or the syllable division pattern of the word in the middle.

Check out her blog for instructions on how to make your own cards!

http://atlantareads.org/2015/03/multisensory-monday-syllable-division-uno/

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