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1st grade · English Language Arts · Unit 4 of 19

Sh, Ch, Th

Two letters, one sound

What your child practices

Letter pairs that make one sound (sh, ch, th) at the start and end of words like ship, cheese and tooth.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 1RF3 · reading words with the digraphs sh, ch and th

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Some letter pairs make one new sound.
  2. sh says /sh/ as in ship. ch says /ch/ as in chin.
  3. th says /th/ as in thumb.

Example: Which two letters start “shell”? Say “shell”. It starts with /sh/. /sh/ is spelled s-h. Answer: sh

Sh, Ch, Th in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 4 of 19 in 1st grade English Language Arts, after Word Families and before Sight Words.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which word starts with “sh”?

    • 🐚shell
    • 🧀cheese
    • 👍thumb

  2. Question 2

    Which word starts with “ch”?

    • 👍thumb
    • 🧵thread
    • 🍫chocolate

  3. Question 3

    Which word starts with “sh”?

    • 🐑sheep
    • 3️⃣three
    • 🍒cherries

  4. Question 4

    Which word ends with “ch”?

    • 🛋️couch
    • 🖌️paintbrush
    • 🐟fish

  5. Question 5

    Which two letters start this word?

    👍__umb
    • ch
    • sh
    • th

  6. Question 6

    Which two letters start this word?

    3️⃣__ree
    • ch
    • sh
    • th

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