Learn
Some letters team up. When two letters make one sound, we call them a digraph.
Tap each card to hear it.
sh is the sound you make when you want someone to be quiet. Put a finger on your lips and say shhh.
sh can be at the start or the end
Practice
1. Do you hear sh?
Say the word. Do you hear shhh?
2. Where is the sh?
Is sh at the start or the end?
3. Build the word
Look at the picture. Which sound is missing?
In the real world
sh is everywhere! Can you find these?
- At the library“Shh!” means use a quiet voice.
- Getting dressedshoes, shirt, shorts all start with sh.
- BedtimeYou brush your teeth. brush ends with sh.
- After dinnerwash the dish: both end with sh!
- Bath timeshower, shampoo, splash.
- At the storeshop, shelf, fish, cash.
- At the beachshell, ship, splash, maybe a shark!
- sh huntFind five things at home with sh. Put a finger on your lips each time you hear it.
For grown-ups
What this is
A digraph is two letters that spell one sound. In sh, you don't hear an /s/ and then an /h/. The two letters together make a brand new sound, /sh/. In class it's tied to the “be quiet” sound, so a finger to the lips is a great reminder.
How to help
- Stretch the sound: “shhhhh-ip”, “fi-shhhhh.” Ask: is the quiet sound at the start or the end?
- Play “I spy something with sh” around the house (shoe, brush, dish, shelf, shirt).
- Write sh words with a finger on the table, in sand, or on a steamy mirror, saying the sound as you write the two letters.
- When reading, if your child says /s/ /h/ for sh, cover the rest of the word and ask, “What do these two say together?”
Common mix-ups
- s or sh? sip and ship, sell and shell. A snake (sss) versus a quiet sign (shhh).
- h and s apart: in a word like house, the h and the s are both there but not side by side, so there's no /sh/.
- Other digraphs (ch, th, wh, ck) usually come along soon and follow the same idea.