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Read it. Trace it. Write it. Draw it! Two letters. One sound. A new step in reading.

Make phonics practice purposeful with our Consonant Digraphs Trace and Blend worksheets for the digraph sh, which spells /sh/ at the start or end of a word: ship, shop, shed, shell, shack, shock, shut, shin, dish, fish, rush, mash. Every word has three sounds, with two letters standing for one of them, and is decodable with single letter-sounds plus the digraph. Every page in this set is sh; shell, shack and shock also use ck and ll from Sets 1 and 2.

Set 4 of 7. Set 4 is the first digraph that spells a sound with no single letter of its own, so the two-letters-one-sound idea now carries a new sound as well as a new spelling. The seven sets run from ck and the doubled letters to sh, ch, th and ng, and finish with a mixed review; use them in order or pick the set your class needs.

Four activities, one set of words

The same words are repeated across the four activities, which run from most to least supported, so you can use them in order or pick the one that suits each student or group. There is no expectation that students complete every page.

• Trace and Blend (supported decoding and handwriting): look at the letters, say each sound, blend to read the word, trace the letters, then unfold to check the picture. The picture column sits behind a dotted fold line so students read before they see it.
• Trace and Write (supported spelling): name the picture, say each sound, then write the letters from left to right, tracing the two that make one sound. Blend the sounds to read the word back.
• Say and Write (independent spelling): name the picture, say each sound and write the letter or letters for each sound. Blend the sounds to read the word back.
• Read and Draw (picture-free decoding and comprehension): read the word with no picture to help, trace it, then draw what it means. Two words per page.

What's included

Two print-ready A4 PDFs for your handwriting edition, each 15 pages: a Colour file for colour printing and a Black and White file for photocopying (with a “colour the picture” step for early finishers).

• Cover and a one-page teacher guide: what students do in each activity, why it works (with references), which page carries which spelling, and the fold-first tip
• Trace and Blend: 3 pages
• Trace and Write: 3 pages
• Say and Write: 3 pages
• Read and Draw: 3 pages
• Back page

Handwriting editions: NSW and ACT, QLD, SA, TAS and VIC (the Victorian edition includes both VIC Print and VIC Modern Cursive). Tracing letters are dashed in your state's style, and each sound has its own box, with the digraph written as two letters in one box.

Looking for the bundle option? Consonant Digraphs Trace and Blend: sh words is included in the Consonant Digraphs Trace and Blend Complete Bundle (7 sets) and the Foundation Trace and Blend Mega Bundle (51 sets).

Made for purposeful practice

Grounded in the science of reading and systematic synthetic phonics, these worksheets bring decoding, segmenting, spelling, handwriting and reading for meaning together around one predictable set of words. A digraph is one grapheme for one phoneme, so it sits in one sound box and is said as one sound, in line with the NSW syllabus and current phonics guidance. In Trace and Blend, students read the letters and blend before they look at the picture; the picture confirms the word rather than giving it away. These pages are supplementary practice to sit alongside your explicit phonics program, not a program in themselves.

Perfect for explicit teaching, small-group instruction, literacy rotations, fast finishers and targeted revision.

Best suited to: Kindergarten in NSW (Early Stage 1), once single letter-sounds and CVC words are secure. Elsewhere, including the ACT, the Australian Curriculum v9.0 introduces digraphs in Year 1, so this set suits Foundation students who are ready to extend and Year 1 students for practice, revision and intervention.

Curriculum links: NSW English K–2 Syllabus, Early Stage 1: ENE-PHOKW-01 (decode and blend words containing consonant digraphs; segment and encode CVC words containing consonant digraphs), ENE-PHOAW-01 (phonological awareness), ENE-SPELL-01 (spelling) and ENE-HANDW-01 (handwriting). Australian Curriculum v9.0 English: Year 1 AC9E1LY11 (use digraphs to write words and blend them to read); Foundation AC9EFLY08 (letter formation), AC9EFLY10 (blend and segment phonemes), AC9EFLY11 (letters and their most common sounds) and AC9EFLY13 (use letters and sounds to spell words).

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