Phase 2 digraphs - ck, ff, ll, ss

Revisit and Review:

Use a Sharpie to write a Phase 2 sound on each chocolate coin. Make sure to save 4 blank coins for later. Then hide the coins around the room. Invite your child to go on a treasure hunt to find the coins. Can they say the sound when they find them?

Once your child has found all the treasure select the c, k, f, l and s coins. Explain that we can make the same sounds using digraphs. Digraphs are two letters that represent one sound.

Write the digraphs ck, ff, ll and ss onto the spare chocolate coins. Make sure to write the two letters that make a digraph on the same coin to reinforce the idea that they go together. Your child will learn more digraphs during phase 3.

Explain that these digraphs usually come at the end of a word (usually if the word is one syllable and the sound follows a short vowel). There are some exceptions e.g. if, us and yes.

Short vowel examples:

a - pack (p-a-ck)

e - bell (b-e-ll)

i - miss (m-i-ss)

o - doll (d-o-ll)

u - huff (h-u-ff)

Make a CVC word (consonant, vowel, consonant) from the list below.⁣ If you have two different coloured coins, you could write the vowels a, e, i, o and u on one coloured coin and the consonants on another. Model how to sound out each coin then blend them to read the word e.g. f-u-n, fun.

Include some words that have a digraph. Having both letters from the digraph written on the same coin will remind your child that the two letters work together to make one sound and that they don't need to sound out both letters e.g. pack is sounded out as p-a-ck rather than p-a-c-k.⁣

Words you could use:

kick, sock, sack
 puff, huff, cuff

bell, sell, dull

less, hiss, fuss

Ask your child to spell words using the chocolate coins. Say a word from the list above and ask them to segment it into individual sounds e.g. doll, d-o-ll.