Digraph Crafts

Hi! Today, I wanted to share some of my favorite crafts to use for teaching digraphs. I try to make my blog posts useful for teachers in the classroom, and grown ups who are homeschooling or supporting a child at home. All of these activities can be found in my Digraph Pack. It’s full of centers, printables, assessments and crafts to help your students learn and practice read ing and writing digraphs.

What Are Digraphs?

In case you aren’t familiar, digraphs are two letters that work together to make a single sound. With blends, readers can hear each individual sound. Digraphs are unique, because you can’t “sound them out” by individual letters. The letters combine to create a different sound.

Why Should We Use Crafts?

There is so much conversation around making our academic day is full of rigor. The more we understand about child development, the more we are learning (or remembering) the importance of play and other important skills, like fine motor skills, gross motor skills and following directions. Quick crafts allow our students (or kids at home) to practice cutting, gluing, following directions, planning, while they are practicing reading and writing words with digraphs. I also love using crafts as an opportunity to work with individual students and small groups. After a mini-lesson or full lesson cycle on digraphs, I can give a quick craft for students to work on while I work with students who need more support reading and writing the words.

A Quick Reminder

While I LOVE using crafts and “craftivities” to practice fine motor skills, build engagement, and help students remember the skill…a craft on it’s own will not teach your students. These activities should be paired with direct instruction, books with the phonics patterns and manipulatives (like sound boxes and magnetic letters). When we include these crafts in our quality instruction, we offer our students multiple opportunities to engage with the content.