Word Families

With word families, the possible answers are four forms of the SAME word. Memorize common noun forms, adjectives, adverbs, and verb forms. Word families tests how well you know the various types of words that can be made from one word. A word can go from noun to verb to adjective to adverb by changing the ending of the word. Word Family worksheets help children in kindergarten quickly learn new words that have similar patterns. They will enhance their reading and writing skills while growing their vocabulary with these free Word Family worksheets.

• Teaching word families is a great way to improve the reading abilities of primary-grade students. A word family is any grouping of words that have the same vowel sound and contain the same short sequence of letters, often at the end.
• Word Families 'Hey, diddle, diddle - The cat and the fiddle,' is a phrase from a well-known nursery rhyme that uses word families to teach students how to read and spell.

What are Word Families? Beginning readers can benefit greatly from learning and implementing word families. Here is what I share regarding phonograms (the fancy word for word families) in my I Can Teach My Child to Read eBook: 'Another strategy that has proven to be helpful for many children is the teaching of phonograms.

Phonics word families are groups of words that havesimilar letter patterns. By learning just one patternyour child can learn many words at the same time.

When two vowels are placed side-by-side, in most cases the first vowel says its name and the other is silent. Take for example the word rain. Notice that the a in rain says its name and the second vowel i is silent.

Here is a great way to teach this basic phonics rule to a child.

Word Family Examples

Here is a word family your child will learn as anearly reader.

cat matsat fat rat bat hat pat vat

All of these words have the letters at incommon. When we read the words aloud the second part of each word sounds and looks the same . This makesthem rhyme. In the at family the words are identical, except for thefirst letter. This is one of the first phonics word families children learn.

The following word family is more complex and wouldbe taught at a much later stage in a child's reading and spelling. The partthat is repeated in this family of words is ain.

Our recent arrivals!turks and caicos virtual. train gainrefrain obtain main remain explain rainbrain drain grain stain

Follow This Sequence of Phonics Word Families

There are many different patterns or word families in the English language. The good news is that patterns are recyclable! That means that if your child learns a particular pattern once, they will be able to learn all the other words in that phonics word family without stress. It speeds up the process of learning to read and write.

This is how I, as a literacy teacher, teach thestages. I introduce my students to simple phonics word families in this order..

1. am family

Words like..

ham Samram bam dam jam Pam yam

I choose this family first because the letters aand m are among the first letters children should be taught to blendtogether. They are the easiest for beginner readers to learn.

2. at family

Words like those mentioned above..

cat matsat fat rat bat hat pat vat

You probably have memories of reading books aboutcats on mats. Again this is because the t sound is learned early as somany words contain it.

3. an family

Words like..

can, Dan,fan, man, pan, ran, van

4. ad family

Words like..

bad dadhad lad mad pad sad

Follow This Sequence of Phonics Word Families

There are many different patterns or word families in the English language. The good news is that patterns are recyclable! That means that if your child learns a particular pattern once, they will be able to learn all the other words in that phonics word family without stress. It speeds up the process of learning to read and write.

This is how I, as a literacy teacher, teach thestages. I introduce my students to simple phonics word families in this order..

1. am family

Words like..

ham Samram bam dam jam Pam yam

I choose this family first because the letters aand m are among the first letters children should be taught to blendtogether. They are the easiest for beginner readers to learn.

2. at family

Words like those mentioned above..

cat matsat fat rat bat hat pat vat

You probably have memories of reading books aboutcats on mats. Again this is because the t sound is learned early as somany words contain it.

3. an family

Words like..

can, Dan,fan, man, pan, ran, van

4. ad family

Words like..

bad dadhad lad mad pad sad

All these words have what we call a short vowel ain the middle of them. The short a sounds like the way we say aaaat the beginning of the word apple.

Once your child understands what paticular sounds the lettersmake and how to form the letters they will be able to spell them as well asread them. It all depends on how well they can use a pencil but if their pencilgrip is good they can sound out the letters and spell them not long after theylearn to read them.

I focus on the vowel e when I teach the nextgroup of phonics word families.

5. et family

Words like..

bet getjet let met net pet set vet wet

6. ed family

Words like..

bed, fed,led, Ted, Jed

7. en family

Words like..

Ben, den,hen, Jen, men, pen, ten

You will be getting the idea by now. Notice that atthe early stages the words should only contain three letters. For young readersthat is plenty to concentrate on.

Next you move towords with other vowels like..

i then o thenu.

For a full list of words using these other vowels, click on the link

Once your child has learned to smoothly blend thefirst few word families they will understand what to do as they work their waythrough the different vowels.

Word Families Chart

Learn these word patterns and the more advancedones and it will make reading and writing much easier.

Word Families Definition

Word Families Printables