Montessori Elementary Reading Lessons: Phonograms and Digraphs

Here are some more advanced reading lessons. I usually go onto these exercises when children have mastered the phonic sounds for reading and are ready for this next step.

We are going to put together 4 different types of materials for your child to choose from to learn about phonograms and digraphs. A digraph is a combination of 2 letters that make a single sound.

Phonogram Boxes

This is a collection of cards with pictures and corresponding words of certain word groups. Each box has either a phonogram or digraph of the most common language words. You can find more words on our Montessori Word List page, or explore our dedicated Phonogram Words list.

Use note cards for the words and on another set of cards provide matching pictures that match the words.

For example, one group can be ai words such as:

mail
pail
nail
rain
train
tail
rail

Put the cards in a box with ai written on the front, outside part of the box.

The next box can be ea words such as:

pea
seat
tea
leaf

Put the cards in a box with ea written on the front, outside part of the box.

The child reads the words and matches it to the picture. If this is difficult, use a word card with the picture on the left corner as a guide. If you'd like more ideas for picture-and-word matching activities, take a look at our Reading Object and Picture Boxes lesson.

Continue to make other boxes as your child progresses.

Booklets

The next material can be made with small, different colored notebooks, such as assignment notebooks. Write the phonogram or digraph on the outside of the notebook. On each page write only one word.

For example, write oa on a notebook. On each page write only one word:

on the first page write the word — soap
on the second page the word — coat
on the third page the word — goat
on the fourth page the word — toad
on the fifth page the word — loaf

Make several notebooks with different word groups. Let your child read the books. This exercise is more difficult because you don't use pictures as reading clues.

Word Lists

The third material is the digraph or phonogram word list. On sheets of paper or use a word processor to write out the word group lists — the digraph or phonogram in each word is written in a different color.

For example, an ea list:

pea
meat
seat
bean
team

Your child reads the lists. For a ready-made resource of words organized by sound, see our Phonetic Word List.

Envelopes

The fourth material consists of a large packet of smaller packets of word groups of phonograms or digraphs which are alike in sound, such as ea, ee, ie, and y.

These small packets are usually envelopes with the sound written on the outside. All these small packets or envelopes are put in a large envelope with all the letters written on the outside (ea ee ie y).

For example, in the ea envelope are cards with one word written on them such as:

pea
meat
seat
bead
bean

In the ee envelope are cards with one word written on them such as:

bee
tree
reel
eel
feet

In the ie envelope are words such as:

field
yield
priest
fiend
pier

In the y envelope are phonograms (y has an "e" sound) such as:

candy
dolly
holly
very
bunny

Again, your child reads the words in the packets.

Extensions

Provide two small moveable alphabets for your child to build the words. Use two different colors — one color for the phonogram or digraph letters and the other color for the remaining letters. A Montessori phonogram movable alphabet works perfectly for this, or you can pair two sets of wooden movable alphabet letters in contrasting colors. For more activities using these letters, visit our Exercises with the Moveable Alphabet page.

Provide different colored pencils and small notebooks so the children can write the words.

Children can work with any of these 4 exercises. I try to overlap with the same words for all four exercises. This is a great way to teach these more difficult words without your child losing interest. Children like finding their own new words and adding to the phonogram word lists.

If your child is just getting started with reading, you may want to begin with our comprehensive Montessori reading guide or review the alphabet phonetic sounds before moving on to phonogram work.