Phonics word families are groups of words that have similar letter patterns. By learning just one pattern your 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.
Thereof, are Word Families?
Word families are groups of words that have a common feature or pattern — they have some of the same combinations of letters in them and a similar sound. For example, at, cat, hat, and fat are a family of words with the «at» sound and letter combination in common.
Likewise, does Words Their Way teach phonics?
Words Their Way is a developmental spelling, phonics, and vocabulary program. Words Their Way is an open-ended individual process. An assessment is given to determine where to begin instruction. Based on assessment results students are given words to study in order to discover the common attributes.
What’s the most rhymed word?
Words That Rhyme With Most
- 1 Syllable Words That Rhyme With Most. Angst. Beast. Best. Blast. Bluest. Boast. Boasts.
- 2 Syllable Words That Rhyme With Most. Ablest. Accost. Adjust. Aghast. Almost. Amidst.
- 3 Syllable Words That Rhyme With Most. Aorist. Diagnose. Easternmost. Engrossed. Furthermost. Innermost.
- 4 Syllable Words That Rhyme With Most. Diagnosed. Overdosed.
What is phonics pattern?
Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing of the English language by developing learners’ phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes—in order to teach the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns (graphemes) that represent them.
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Phonics Word Families
Help to Read and Spell Efficiently
Phonics word families are groups of words that have
similar letter patterns. By learning just one pattern
your 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 an
early reader.
cat mat
sat fat rat bat hat pat vat
All of these words have the letters at in
common. When we read the words aloud the second part of each word sounds and looks the same . This makes
them rhyme. In the at family the words are identical, except for the
first letter. This is one of the first phonics word families children learn.
The following word family is more complex and would
be taught at a much later stage in a child’s reading and spelling. The part
that is repeated in this family of words is ain.
train gain
refrain obtain main remain explain rain
brain 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 the
stages. I introduce my students to simple phonics word families in this order…
1. am family
Words like…
ham Sam
ram bam dam jam Pam yam
I choose this family first because the letters a
and m are among the first letters children should be taught to blend
together. They are the easiest for beginner readers to learn.
2. at family
Words like those mentioned above…
cat mat
sat fat rat bat hat pat vat
You probably have memories of reading books about
cats on mats. Again this is because the t sound is learned early as so
many words contain it.
3. an family
Words like…
can, Dan,
fan, man, pan, ran, van
4. ad family
Words like…
bad dad
had lad mad pad sad
All these words have what we call a short vowel a
in the middle of them. The short a sounds like the way we say aaa
at the beginning of the word apple.
Once your child understands what paticular sounds the letters
make and how to form the letters they will be able to spell them as well as
read them. It all depends on how well they can use a pencil but if their pencil
grip is good they can sound out the letters and spell them not long after they
learn to read them.
I focus on the vowel e when I teach the next
group of phonics word families.
5. et family
Words like…
bet get
jet 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 at
the early stages the words should only contain three letters. For young readers
that is plenty to concentrate on.
Next you move to
words with other vowels like…
i then o then u.
For a full list of words using these other vowels, click on the link
How To Teach Spelling.
Once your child has learned to smoothly blend the
first few word families they will understand what to do as they work their way
through the different vowels.
Learn these word patterns and the more advanced
ones and it will make reading and writing much easier.
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Tips for teaching phonics word families in K-2. Learn why and how to teach short and long vowels with word families and grab a weekly routine that will make it simple to implement into your literacy program.
Are you looking for ways to build upon foundational phonics skills and help students learning to read? Integrating the study of word families into your literacy program is a reliable strategy.
But what are word families, and how do we teach them in our classroom? This article lays out the importance of teaching this phonics skill and tips on how to go about it.
How Phonics Relates to Word Families
Phonics is a method of teaching reading that focuses on using the correlation between letters and sounds to help a student decode words as they read. It is no secret that the English language can be difficult to decode due to ever-changing rules. But certain patterns emerge that we can teach students to help strengthen their reading ability.
Word families, also called phonograms or “chunks,” provide us with groups of words that have a predictable pattern or “chunk.” We teach these patterns as word families- groups of words that have a similar pattern, making them appear to be part of a “family.” By grouping words in this way, students can learn to read groups of words quickly by learning the pattern.
These words also have the same ending, and they all rhyme. This makes learning a set of words (a word family) easier for our beginning readers.
Start with Simple Word Families
So, how and where do we teach when teaching word families?
In Kindergarten, start with simple word families. Begin with one-syllable words, specifically those containing a short a. One of the first families to teach is -at.
Once students can identify the letters and their sounds, it is as simple as changing the first letter of the word to make several other words.
Examples of words in the -at family are bat, cat, hat, fat, mat, sat, etc. Other one syllable, short -a word families, include: -an, -ap, -all.
Besides short -a, there are more one-syllable short vowel families.
- The short e sound has such families as -en, -et, -ed.
- A good one to teach early on is -it (hit, sit, fit, etc.). Short i also has -in, -is, -ip.
- Continuing through the vowels, the short o families are -ot, -op.
- As well as short u: -ug, -up.
All of these are simple families for beginners. By studying the letter/sound patterns, students develop skills that increase their reading fluency.
By first grade, students will be learning long vowel word families, as well.
- Long a makes up many different families: -ake, -ame, -ace, -ate, just to name a few.
- Long e has such families as -ee-, -ea-.
- In addition, long -i families include -ight, -ine, and -ide,
- Long o has -ome, -one, and -ow.
The words in these families are a little more complex, so they should be taught as students are advancing in their reading ability. You can find comprehensive lists online that give examples for each family.
Use a Variety of Engaging Activities
Now that we know the why, it’s time to go into HOW to effectively word families. This is where we can get creative! There is a multitude of creative activities and fun ways to teach and practice word families.
The main goal is to get kids to interact with words as much as possible. The repetition of seeing sets of words in a variety of activities will help children begin to read and remember them.
A Weekly Routine
I suggest having students interact with a weekly word family each day of the week. The more that kids actively participate, the more effective the teaching and learning will be.
DAY 1:
- Introduction – On the first day, begin by introducing the word family. Give the “chunk” and have kids repeat the sound. Then, ask kids to close their eyes and visualize words that rhyme with that sound.
- Word Wall or Anchor Chart – Next, brainstorm words that belong to that family. Record words on an anchor chart or engage students to come and write the words they discover on a word wall.
- Individual Booklets – Then, students will write the completed list in a word family book to be sent home for practice throughout the week.
DAYS 2 – 4:
Start each day with a quick review of the words you are working on with your class. Use word cards in a pocket chart for kids to read and match words with a picture.
Over the next three days of the week, incorporate a variety of hands-on activities to help kids practice and build fluency with the word family. Use different activities as centers that students rotate through or that can be completed individually at their desks.
- Puzzles – Practice matching pictures with words, and build words one letter at a time with puzzle activities. These are great for kids to do independently during small groups!
- Magnetic Letters – Have students use magnetic letters on drip pans to spell out the words.
- Other Methods for Spelling – Write, build, create, draw, or stamp the words.
- GAMES – You can play BINGO with the weekly words or make a spinner, where kids spin a letter to add to a vowel ending to create words.
- Read & Spell – Some students will be past reading the words and ready for more. For these kids, provide activities that challenge them to spell the words and use them in sentences.
- Read books – Don’t forget, as you go through the activities during the week, to incorporate literature as much as possible. Find books that have words from the word family you are working on that week.
- Repetition – Also, let kids create their own little books to practice reading. You can find mini-books to print for each short vowel family here.
Day 5:
After much emphasis and practice over the course of the week, the words should be easy for students to recall and even spell by Friday!
- Assessment – At the end of the week, it is good to have an assessment (this can be part of your weekly spelling test) to see if the kids have mastered the words. Make reading assessment fun with a sticker book!
- Extra Practice – However, if some struggle, don’t forget to provide extra practice. Send activities home for kids to complete that build recognition and fluency.
Teaching Phonics Through Word Study is Effective Practice
The joy of teaching word families is that by teaching students a mere 37 words, they will decode 500 words! That will be a great benefit as you work towards improving reading fluency.
The study of phonics is an effective method for teaching reading, and learning word families is an important part of that process. Besides, your class will have tons of fun as they learn and complete the routines!
FREE -AT Word Family Activities
To get started, check out the free downloadable resource: short ‘a’ vowel word family pack of activities. Click the image below to get your copy!
This free printable resource gives you a sample of what other great resources are available to teach word families. Click below to check out the word family resources available now!
- Short Vowel Word Family Activities
- Long Vowel Word Family Activities
More Literacy Ideas for Your Classroom
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Online Reading for Kids
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Word Family Short Vowels . According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, word families are a group of related words that are formed from the same word or a group of words with particular features in common.
Word Families are sometimes referred to as groups, chunks or rimes. A word family has something in common with each other, have it be the prefix, suffix or root word. For example, green, grass, grow all have the “gr” sound in the beginning of the word.
Word families are important because they help young children recognize and analyze word patterns when they are learning to read. When teaching analytic phonics, teachers use word families to help children understand these patterns and that certain words have the same letter combinations and sounds.
According to researchers Wylie and Durrel, there are 37 common word families: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw, ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck ,ug, ump, unk.
ack: back, hack, pack, rack
ain: brain, chain, main, plain
ake: awake, bake, cake, fake
ale: ale, bale, sale, tale
all: all, ball, call, hall
ame: blame, came, game, same
an: an, ban, can, pan
ank: bank, drank, sank, tank
ap: cap, map, rap, tap
ash: bash, dash, rash, sash
at: bat, cat, fat, mat
ate: fate, gate, late, rate
aw: claw, draw, paw, saw
ay: day, hay, may, say
eat: beat, feat, meat, seat
ell: bell, fell, tell, well
est: best, rest, vest, west
ice: dice, mice, nice, rice
ick: brick, kick, pick, sick
ide: bride, hide, ride, side
Word families are indeed an efficient way to get children reading. Once children learn these one-syllable phonograms then they will more easily be able to decode longer words, too.
Exposing your child to word families, teaching the use of these language patterns, and reinforcing the knowledge with rhyming games and activities will help your child learn to read.
Word families are indeed an efficient way to get children reading. Once children learn these one-syllable phonograms then they will more easily be able to decode longer words, too.
Exposing your child to word families, teaching the use of these language patterns, and reinforcing the knowledge with rhyming games and activities will help your child learn to read.
Word families, sometimes called phonograms or chunks, can really help emergent readers begin to understand our complicated, and often inconsistent, language by providing some predictable patterns within words. As you and I learned to read, we picked up these patterns effortlessly, and they still help us when we try to decode new words. When we direct our child’s attention to these same patterns, they too will be able to untangle the seemingly unrelated sounds of English.
Samples From the Worksheet
Encouraging children to identify rhyming words in a text is at the core of teaching about rhyming word families. Word family charts and games can be useful tools in this effort. For emergent or dyslexic readers, it may not be easy to identify rhyming words. In such cases, the teacher can guide them by emphasizing the similar sounding portions of final syllables in the words being taught. For example, the teacher can take a keyword such as ‘cat‘, and ask the children to find words that end with ‘at’.
Knowledge of word families helps children build vocabulary. Instead of memorizing spellings and meanings of all words, they learn how to spot patterns, identify root words, and understand their common meanings or sounds. This helps in word recognition leading to the development of their reading fluency.
Using 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.
- 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?
- plastic letters
- anchor chart paper
- Mr. Sketch markers
- Tabletop magnetic dry erase board (you can see my magnetic whiteboard in the photo above)
The educational resources above will help you prepare for the word family activities.
Word family books?
Later, in the instructions for getting started with teaching word families, you will read about using picture books to complement 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:
The Cat in the Hat
Green Eggs and Ham
Hop on Pop
Fox in Socks
I see 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.
Teaching Word Families: 4 SUPER SIMPLE STEPS
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Best wishes!
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