Consonant digraph ch

Grade 1 · Day 44 · Alpha-Phonics Lesson 30 · p.44 · 26.9 min · teacher edition of the student sheet
voice off/tʃ/ch · postalveolar affricate
/tʃ/ · ch

Our new sound: /tʃ/   written ch

Start it like /t/ — tongue up on the ridge — then let it go into sh. Two sounds glued into one: ch.

Check yourself: Say /t/ then shhh, faster and faster, until they join.

Watch for: sh. A child who says 'shair' for 'chair' is missing the /t/ at the front.

Read these · 15 words

chap
check
chick
chop
chuck
chat
chess
chill
chug
chin
chip
rich
much
such
which

◆ marks a word that does NOT follow today's pattern — Blumenfeld boxes these on the page. Teach it by heart; do not let the class sound it out and lose faith in the rule.

Write what you hear

chap
check
chick
chop
chuck

Say the word, have them repeat it, count the sounds on fingers, THEN write. The count is what stops a child writing the first letter and guessing the rest.