Objective

By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to recognize and use single letter grapheme-phoneme correspondences and common digraphs to read and write simple words. The student will gain confidence in decoding and encoding words through fun and interactive activities.

Materials and Prep

• Paper
• Crayons or markers
• A comfortable space to sit and work
• Knowledge of common digraphs (e.g., "sh", "ch", "th") and single letter sounds

Activities

• Sound Scavenger Hunt

  Go around the house or outside and find items that start with different sounds. For example, find something that starts with "b" like a ball or something that starts with "sh" like a shell. This will help the student connect sounds to objects!

• Digraph Drawing

  Ask the student to draw pictures of things that have common digraphs in their names. For example, they can draw a "ship" for "sh" or "chair" for "ch". They can then label their drawings with the words they created.

• Word Building with Sounds

  Using the paper, have the student write down different letters and digraphs. Encourage them to create simple words by combining the sounds. For example, combining "sh" and "ip" to make "ship".

• Story Time

  Read a short story together that includes words with single letters and digraphs. After reading, ask the student to identify words they heard that have those sounds. This reinforces their listening and decoding skills!

Talking Points

• "Can you tell me what sound this letter makes?"
• "Let's think of a word that starts with this sound!"
• "What do you hear when we say 'sh' together? Can you find something that starts with those sounds?"
• "Great job! Now, can you write that word down? Let's sound it out together!"
• "When we read, we can look for these sounds in our story! Can you find any?"