Extend Phonemic Awareness with This Trigraphs Word List

Trigraphs are three-letter combinations that create one phoneme (sound). They can be found at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of words. This list of 40 words containing some of the more common trigraphs in the English language has been compiled to assist you in implementing your phonics program in your classroom. It includes words containing the following trigraphs:

• dge (as in bridge)
• igh (as in sigh)
• ear (as in beard)
• eer (as in cheer)
• tch (as in fetch)
• ere (as in there)
• oul (as in could)
• ore (as in store)
• are (as in care)
• air (as in flair)
• ere (as in here).

Multiple Applications for This Trigraphs Word List

This list of words containing trigraphs can be used in numerous ways to support the diverse needs of your learners during your literacy sessions. Here are some of our suggestions:

Word list group challenge

Place the students into small groups. Provide them with large pieces of butcher’s paper and markers. Provide each group with a different trigraph from the list. Challenge the students to write down as many words as they can think of that contain their assigned trigraph within a set time period, e.g., five minutes. The group that comes up with the most words is the word list champion!

Individual practise

Send the lists home so your students can revise decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) the words on the list. Be sure to include only words containing letter-sound correspondences you have already addressed in class.

Formative assessment

Use the word list as a progress monitoring tool to keep track of your students’ phonemic awareness and to identify the trigraphs that require further review.

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