Robot Digraph Scratch

Learning to read is a complex task. Just as your child masters single sounds we introduce digraphs – where two letters make one sound. Digraphs are sounds such as sh/ ch/ th and ee. Although Adam can name digraphs when they are list, he doesn’t always spot a digraph when it is hidden in a word. I wanted to devise an activity where he had to locate the digraphs within a word. After the success of our Snowman Sight Word Scratch activity I decided to use our scratch off stickers to make Robot Digraph Scratch.

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Resources needed to make Robot Digraph Scratch

* Card – we used yellow, green, red and white card

* Black Felt Tip Pen

* Black pen

* Scissors

* Jolly Phonics Word Book (optional)

* Scratch Off Stickers

* Coin

How to make Robot Digraph Scratch

I decided to use the activity to focus on six digraphs that Adam doesn’t always recognise. You can use which ever digraphs your child needs to work on.

1. Draw a simple robot shape onto card. Cut out the robot and use it as a template to create six robots on white card. Use a black felt tip pen to outline the robots and a black pen to add eyes and a mouth. Write each digraph in the middle of the robot. We focused on ai/ ea/ oa/ er/ oi/ and ou.

2. Use the same robot template to create as many robots as you wish. I used red, green and yellow card to make 30 robots. Outline the robots using the black felt tip pen and a black pen to add eyes and a mouth.

3. I used our Jolly Phonics Word Book to decide which words for use for each diagraph. I wanted the words to only contain one digraph. We used the following words:

ai – rain, jail, tail, afraid, paint

ea – meat, beat, heap, cream, team

oa – boat, goal, toad, float, soap

er – fern, hotter, winter, river, number

oi – coin, boil, foil, point, join

ou – out, loud, sour, count, found

4. Cover up each word with a Scratch Off Sticker.

5. Cut around each robot so you are ready to play the game.

How to play Robot Digraph Scratch

I placed the six white digraph robots in a line and positioned the scratch sticker robots underneath. I gave Adam a 2p coin.

Adam used the coin to scratch away the surface of the sticker. This developed Adams fine motor skills and his hand muscles. After lots of rubbing he revealed the hidden word underneath.

Adam sounded out the word and blended the sounds together to read the word. He had to identify the digraph hidden in the word and find its matching robot. Adam then placed the colourful robot above the white digraph robot. He continued the game with another robot.

Watch the Robot Digraph Scratch activity in action:

Adam loved the anticipation of trying to work out the hidden word. As he rubbed away the sticker he revealed more of the word.

As I made so many robots the activity will last for some time. The same activity could be used to identify trigraphs (three letters that make one sound) or even split digraphs.