Free printable digraph sh phonics worksheets. Five practice activities: decodable passage, word sort, phrasing cards, rapid naming chart, and word search.
A free illustrated mini-book for Digraph SH, plus the same story as a passage sheet for highlighting.
A full-color picture book your student reads on their own. Skill: Digraph SH. Print, cut and staple.
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Shelly had a big dish of fish. It was for her pet, Shag. Shag was in the shed. “I wish you can get this!” said Shelly. Shag ran from the shed in a rush to get the fish. The dish did tip. “Hush, hush!” said Shelly. “I do not wish to drop this!” Shag did stop. He sat. Shelly had a big grin. She set the dish down. Shag had a big snack of fresh fish. Then Shelly ran to wash the dish.
The letters s and h work together to make one sound, /sh/. You can hear it at the start or the end of a word.
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36 sh words, sorted by where the sound comes in the word. The printable list and word cards are below.
shack, shag, shed, shelf, shell, shift, shin, ship, shock, shop, shot, shred, shrimp, shrub, shut
ash, brush, cash, crush, dash, dish, fish, flash, fresh, gush, hush, mash, mesh, push, rash, rush, smash, splash, trash, wash, wish
SH words to read, match and write, with pictures. Each PDF has its answer key on page 2.
The sheets above are free. The pack is every sheet for sh, ch, th, ck and the l, r and s blends in order, a review set and all the answer keys, ready to print.
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6 ready-to-print PDFs for this story's digraph sh words. Each one opens as its own file.
Cut-apart word cards to sort: SH at the Start or SH at the End. Answer key on page 2.
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A new decodable story with the same digraph sh sounds — each comes with its own set of worksheets.
The SH digraph is a foundational phonics skill where two letters, S and H, combine to make a single new sound, /sh/, as heard at the beginning of "ship" or the end of "fish." This is a crucial step for kindergarten and first-grade students, building on individual letter sounds and preparing them for more complex blends. A common challenge with SH is that young learners might try to pronounce each letter separately, saying /s/ /h/ instead of /sh/, leading to mispronunciations like "s-hip" instead of "ship." They might also confuse it with other similar-sounding digraphs or blends, especially when encountering it initially or finally in words like "shed" versus "said," or "wash" versus "was." Recognizing SH as one cohesive sound is key to accurate decoding and encoding. To effectively practice the SH digraph, utilize these worksheets purposefully. After introducing the /sh/ sound, have your child read the decodable passage "Shelly and the Shag," focusing on fluent reading and identifying SH words like "shell" and "shag." Use the word sort activity to help them categorize words based on whether SH appears at the beginning (ship, shop) or end (fish, wash), reinforcing positional awareness. The phrasing cards are excellent for building fluency and comprehension with short phrases containing SH words, such as "a red shed" or "push the cart." Finally, the Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) chart for SH words will help build automaticity, allowing them to quickly recognize and vocalize words like "rush," "mash," and "cash" without conscious effort.
For more early literacy resources, explore our sight word flashcards, tracing worksheets, handwriting worksheets, and coloring pages.
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