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.
Word families help students learn to read, while building their vocabulary. Being able to recognize patterns and common phonetic sounds is the foundation for strong spelling skills. Of course, not every word in the English language can be simply sounded out, but this is an ideal place to start.
Word families worksheets help kids learn common spellings in a fast and fun way. Word families worksheets are a great resource for young readers and writers. Word Family House / Pictures and Words to Sort. Children can sort pictures into one or more word family houses according to sound, may read and sort the words by word family, or may read the words and match them to the corresponding pictures. Choose which word families you wish for your child to practice. Word families are groups of words that have a common pattern or groups of letters with the same sound. For example, the “ain” word family includes brain, chain, gain, pain, rain, and so on. The following list of common word families come from Wylie and Durrell, 1970.
Word Families
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.
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
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.
Word Families
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.
Learn these word patterns and the more advancedones and it will make reading and writing much easier.
Go From Phonics Word Families toPhonics Literacy Home Page
To Top of PageUsing word families, you will learn how to teach beginning reading using these free phonics resources and strategies. Find out what I did wrong and how I learned to teach beginning reading using word patterns. Then you’ll access your free Word Family lessons and activities below.
Once upon a time there was a teacher girl…
But this teacher was totally stuck! She had tried just about everything to teach her first grade students how to read unknown words. And above all, she had a lesson observation scheduled with her principal… LIKE NEXT WEEK!!!
Secretly, she started doing a crazy amount of research. This wasn’t easy either. Believe it or not, this was before the birth of GOOGLE.
This teacher decided that no matter what, she HAD TO LEARN how to teach her newbie readers how to solve unknown words they encountered while reading.
Knowing about reading is not enough
Knew about phonics? CHECK
Had a specialization in reading? CHECK
Worked for a super poor district that couldn’t afford new materials? CHECK
Firstly, the odds were against her because not only were these students less than privileged, but English was their second language. Her students needed a strategy that was simple and to the point.
Fast forward to about 4 days later… that awesome but crazy teacher girl stayed up for days and nights doing her research.
She pulled out her college textbooks on literacy, ESL resources and even made a trip to the public library. Google wasn’t even a thing yet.
Yes, I said it… LIBRARY! Not GOOGLE, Library.
What happened? What did I learn about word patterns?
By combining the best strategy components, and getting rid of the ones we really didn’t need…
She discovered a SUPER SIMPLE STRATEGY for teaching students how to read unknown words by teaching word families.
Yes, teachers, there is a certain way that you teach word families. Above all, it is soooo much easier and simpler than you thought.
I am super excited to share my FREE mini ebook. When I say “mini”, I mean mini. You will read the word families pdf super fast, and just take off.
You will be teaching students how to actively use word family knowledge to read unknown words. Therefore, this is a strategy that every student needs to have in their reading toolbox. Below is a simple outline for how to teach word families.
How do you teach word families?
- Start with one syllable words (this is super important)
- Create a word family anchor chart
- Make new words with the pattern
- Engage your students with hands on learning fun
Of course this is just the bare bones. In other words, you will get the meat when you read the free resource.
What resources do I need to start teaching word families?
- Tabletop magnetic dry erase board(you can see my magnetic white board in the photo above)
Word Families Definition
The educational resources above will help you prepare for the word family activities.
Word family books?
Later, in the instructions for how to get started with teaching word families, you will read about using picture books to compliment your word family mini lessons. I have been messaged by several teachers that want to know which are good books to use when teaching word families.
Teaching word families books:
I’m seeing a nice little trend here. Dr. Seuss is where it’s at!! You might as well shoot for the entire Dr. Seuss book collection! There are so many more books, but that will have to be another blog post.
Next, you’ll have to do a tad bit of research. You will want the book to match whatever word pattern – word family you are teaching.
In conclusion, when you download the FREE mini-ebook, there is also a link to an additional FREE word family product.
Please leave a message below to tell me what you think.
Best wishes!
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Word Families List Pdf