sh and ch
Two letters, one sound. A team.
What this skill is
A digraph is two letters making one sound — sh (/sh/, as in ship), ch (/ch/, as in chair). Children commonly try to sound the letters separately, which produces nonsense, so this rung is worth doing slowly.
Three ways to teach it at home
- Say it explicitly: two letters, one sound, a team. Cover one letter and show that the sound disappears.
- Sort words into two columns — the team versus the same letters as separate sounds — and let them place each one.
- Watch for sounding out the letters separately. That is the error to catch, and it needs correcting immediately rather than later.
The full word list
Every word here uses only spellings taught at or before this rung, so nothing needs guessing. Print it, or read it down the column together.
ship · shop · shed · shut · shell · fish · dish · wish · cash · dash · rash · wash · rush · brush · crash · shin · shag · mash · chin · chip · chat · chop · chum · chest · much · such · rich · lunch · bunch · munch · punch · ranch · bench · chick
Where this sits in the ladder
Comes after
Opens next
Questions people actually ask
What grade is "sh and ch"?
It sits in kindergarten in most sequences, and it is aligned to RF.1.3a. In Ladderbug it opens once r l k j w v y z x qu is solid — grade labels are a rough guide, and readiness is what actually matters.
Is this game free?
Yes. This page needs no account, no email and no card, and there are no advertisements. It saves progress in your own browser.
What mistakes should I watch for?
Sounds out sh as /s/ /h/. We probe for it deliberately by offering that exact wrong answer as a choice, and if a child picks it twice we go back to sh and ch rather than repeating the same question.
This is one rung of 82.
Open the whole ladder — free