th and wh Digraphs Word Search

This, that, them, then, when, what — half of the most important words in English start with a digraph. If children cannot read th and wh fluently, every sentence they meet becomes harder than it needs to be.

This word search contains fifteen words using the th and wh digraphs, for Reception and Year 1 children working through Phase 3 of Letters and Sounds, and for kindergarten and first grade readers building their digraph set. Unlike ch and sh, the th words here include some of the highest-frequency words in the language — THIS, THAT, WITH, WHEN — so this puzzle is quietly doing sight-word work as well as phonics. Words run in two directions only.

THIS · THAT · THEM · THEN · THIN · WITH · BATH · PATH · WHEN · WHAT · WHIP · MATH · MOTH · THUD · THAN

The secret of the two th sounds

Here is something most adults have never noticed: th makes two different sounds, and this grid contains both. Say THIS with a hand resting flat on your throat — you will feel a buzz. Now say THIN the same way — no buzz. THIS, THAT, THEM and THEN are voiced; THIN, BATH and MOTH are unvoiced. Same two letters, two sounds, told apart by a vibration you can literally feel.

Children do not need the terminology, but they adore the experiment, and it solves a real problem: a child who knows th can buzz or whisper stops being confused when the “same” digraph sounds different in different words. The wh digraph is simpler — in most modern accents it sounds identical to plain w — and its job here is mainly to introduce the question words. WHEN and WHAT are the first two members of a family (WHERE, WHY, WHICH, WHO) that will open every question your child ever reads.

Five words to explore together

1. THIS, THAT, THEM and THEN are everywhere. After finding all four, open any book to any page and challenge your child to spot one of them within ten seconds. They will — and that’s the lesson.
2. BATH and PATH rhyme and end in th. Ask your child to put a hand on their throat and say both: buzz or no buzz? (No buzz — these are the whispered th.) The experiment beats any explanation.
3. WHEN and WHAT begin the question family. Ask your child to ask you a question starting with each word. Using a word in a real question plants it deeper than finding it ever could.
4. THIN has an opposite hiding nearby. Ask what the opposite of thin is — then ask whether THICK would end in -ck, and why. (Short vowel before /k/: it would, and it does.) Two puzzles ago, the rule; today, the proof it stuck.
5. THUD is a word you can perform. Have your child drop a book flat on the floor as they say it. Sound-effect words are the easiest spellings in the language to remember, because the word is the noise.

Three ways to use this puzzle

As a buzz-or-whisper investigation. Hands on throats, the whole class says each found word and votes: buzz or whisper? Sort the words into two columns as you go. Five minutes of phonetics children will retell at dinner — and a permanent fix for the “why does th sound different?” question.

As a read-and-find pair task. One child reads a word aloud from the list, their partner finds it, swap each turn. With this particular grid, the reader is rehearsing the most common words in English out loud — fluency practice disguised as turn-taking.

One-to-one at home. For home educators, finish with a two-minute th hunt: open any picture book and ask your child to spot as many th words as they can before the timer runs out. Most children are astonished by the count — and that astonishment is the point. The words from today’s puzzle are not worksheet words; they are the language itself, and your child just proved it with a book from their own shelf.

What comes next

• ph digraph and qu words word search — the next puzzle in the series
• ch and sh digraphs word search — the previous digraph pair
• All spelling word searches — the full series from foundation phonics to Year 6

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