Digraphs in Sentences: Circle and Count sh

One letter team, sh, sits in a large bead at the top of this 2nd grade page, and four numbered sentence cards run down below it, each with a dashed box on the right. The child reads the sentences, circles every sh, and writes how many they found in each sentence in its box. The sheet shown reads: A fish swims to the dish. The shark and the fish splash in the sea. My cat sat in the shade. A crab ran up the shore to the shed. There are eight to find, in fish, dish, shark, fish, splash, shade, shore and shed.

Finding a team inside running text is harder than finding it in one picture word, and it is a step toward reading fluently: the child has to notice sh in the middle of a sentence without being told which word holds it. The sentences are simple and decodable, so the counting is the challenge. Swims and sea start with s but not with sh, and a careful reader will not circle them; that is the distinction the page is really testing.

One sheet, four sentences, four counts. The first grade digraphs are reviewed here at grade 2, so treat it as a quick fluency check rather than new learning. Children who finish can write their own sh sentence and swap it with a partner to count. Reading the sentences aloud after circling lets children hear every team they found. This is the last face of the digraphs family and the only one built on running text.