What are word families in reading

Table of Contents

  1. What rhymes with Lake for a poem?
  2. What word rhymes with lakes?
  3. What is another word for tribe?
  4. How do you introduce a word family?
  5. Is there an order to teach word families?
  6. How do you introduce a word?

Introduce students to other simple word families. Say something like, “I’ve introduced you to the ‘-at’ word family. Now let me introduce you to a few more.” X Research source Then write on the whiteboard: The “-an” family: ran, fan, tan, man. The “-ad” family: mad, sad, bad, had, pad, lad.

What rhymes with Lake for a poem?

Words That Rhyme With Lake

  • 1 Syllable Words That Rhyme With Lake. Ache. Ake. Bake. Bike. Blake. Bloke. Brake. Break. Broke. Cake.
  • 2 Syllable Words That Rhyme With Lake. Alike. Awake. Awoke. Belike. Bellyache. Betake. Blacksnake. Clambake. Corncrake. Decoke.
  • 3 Syllable Words That Rhyme With Lake. Huarache. Opaque. Overtake. Rattlesnake. Undertake.

What word rhymes with lakes?

Word Rhyme rating Categories
partake 100 Verb
rake 100 Noun
flake 100 Noun
spake 100 Verb

What is another word for tribe?

In this page you can discover 51 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for tribe, like: clan, family, folk, kindred, kith-and-kin, phratric, division, deme, group, association and ethnocentric.

Word families, also called phonograms or “chunks,” provide us with groups of words that have a predictable pattern or “chunk.” These words have the same ending, and they all rhyme. This makes learning a set of words (a word family) easier on our beginning readers.

How do you introduce a word family?

Is there an order to teach word families?

There is no particular order to the word families that one chooses; however, short a families make a good starting point because they are so common in the reading materials of young children, and studies of children’s invented spellings show that this is the short vowel least likely to be confused (Henderson, 1985).

How do you introduce a word?

7 Best Ways to Introduce New Vocabulary

  1. Picture It. Use pictures of new vocabulary words to introduce them to your students.
  2. Keep it Real. Using real objects to introduce new vocabulary will aid your students in remembering the new words.
  3. Tell It Like It Is.
  4. Sing It Loud.
  5. Introduce Couples.
  6. Get Physical.
  7. The Root of the Issue.

Teaching Technique to Help a Struggling Reader

Nicole Yeary / Flickr / CC BY 2.0


Updated on October 05, 2019

An emphasis on sounding out words with isolated phonemes often leads students to dread reading and think of decoding as some sort of mystical power. Children naturally look for patterns in things, so to make reading easier, teach them to search for predictable patterns in words. When a student knows the word «cat,» he can pick out the pattern with mat, sat, fat, etc. 

Teaching patterns through word families— rhyming words—facilitates fluency, giving students more self-confidence and a willingness to use prior knowledge to decode new words. When students can recognize the patterns in word families, they can quickly write/name members of the family and use those patterns to nail down more words.

Using Word Families

Flash cards, and thrill and drill work to a certain extent, but providing your students with a variety of activities keeps them engaged and increases the likelihood that they will generalize the skills they acquire. Rather than using worksheets that can turn students with disabilities off (demanding the use of fine motor skills), try art projects and games to introduce word families.

Art Projects

Artistic word sorts with seasonal themes capture kids’ imaginations and use their enthusiasm for a favorite holiday to introduce and reinforce word families.

Paper Bags and Word Families: Print a variety of related words, then ask your students to cut them apart and put them in bags labeled with the corresponding word families. Turn them into trick or treat bags with crayons or cutouts (or buy some at the dollar store) and use them as a centerpiece in your classroom before Halloween. Or draw Santa’s sack for Christmas, and label them with a word family. Then instruct students to sort words written on «presents» cut from construction paper into the appropriate sacks. 

Art Project Sorts: Draw or print Easter baskets and label each with a word family. Ask students to write associated words on Easter egg cutouts, then glue them to the corresponding basket. Display the word family baskets on the wall.

Christmas Presents: Wrap tissue boxes in Christmas paper, leaving the opening at the top exposed. Draw or print Christmas tree ornaments shapes and write words on each one. Ask the students to cut and decorate the ornaments, then drop them into the proper gift box.

Games

Games engage students, encourage them to interact appropriately with their peers, and give them an entertaining platform on which to build skills. 

Build Bingo cards with words from a word family, then call out the words until someone fills all of their squares. Occasionally insert a word that doesn’t belong in that particular family and see if your students can identify it. You can include a free space on the Bingo cards, but don’t allow students to use it for a word that doesn’t belong to that family.

Word ladders use the same idea. Following the pattern of Bingo, a caller reads the words and the players cover steps on their word ladders. The first student to cover all of the words on the ladder wins.

Introduction

Are you struggling to help your child understand how to read? There are many things that you can do to help encourage literacy, one of which includes teaching your child word families.

Word families are the grouping of common letters into similar word lists. In short, if your child understands the word family, they’ll be able to understand a list of words with the word family in common.

This guide will not only explain the various word families in the English language but also give you tips and tricks on how to increase reading comprehension.

A word family is a group of letters that are combined to make a specific sound. For example, -ack, -am-, and -at are all word families.

The purpose of understanding a word family is the notion that if you can identify one word, you should be able to identify many others with the common word family. So, if your child can sound out “back,” then they should easily be able to sound out “smack, tack, and rack” as well.

This is also the foundation of understanding how words work together to create a rhyme. Since these words all sound the same, you can combine them to make them have the same flow and rhyme scheme.

Word families increase with difficulty as children age. The first world families that are taught are generally simple, like “at” (for “cat, bat, and sat”). As children age, they will be asked to identify more complex word families like “ain” (or “rain, refrain, and stain”).

Word families and sight words work together to help children learn how to read. All of these words are high-frequency words, which means that children will see them often. When children can identify them quickly and easily, they can become more persuasive writers.

What are Word Families?

Examples

According to Wylie and Durrell, there are 37 common word families in the English language. In actuality, there are many more than 37, but these are the highest frequency words.

Many popular nursery rhymes include these 37 word families. They are simple because each letter is pronounced the way it should be. The only time that words are not pronounced as they are spelled is in the event of two vowels being next to each other. When you encounter one of these two-vowel words (like rain), the rule is to pronounce the first vowel only.

Below is a list of examples for each of the 37 most popular word families.

ack ain ake ale all ame
attack brain awake ale all blame
back chain bake bale ball came
black explain brake dale call fame
crack gain cake gale fall flame
hack grain fake kale gall frame
knack main flake male hall game
lack pain Jake pale install lame
pack plain lake sale mall name
quack rain make scale small same
rack slain quake stale squall shame
snack sprain rake tale stall tame
stack stain sake whale tall  
tack strain shake   thrall  
whack train snake   wall  
  vain stake      
    take      
    wake      
an ank ap ash at ate
an bank cap ash at abate
ban blank clap bash bat ate
bran crank flap brash brat crate
can dank gap cash cat date
clan drank lap clash chat debate
Dan flank map crash fat fate
fan frank nap dash flat gate
flan Hank rap flash gnat grate
Fran plank sap gash hat hate
Jan prank scrap gnash mat Kate
Japan rank slap hash pat late
man sank snap lash rat mate
pan shrank strap mash sat plate
pecan spank tap rash slat rate
plan tank trap sash spat relate
ran thank wrap slash tat sate
scan yank yap smash that skate
span   zap splash vat state
Stan     stash    
tan     thrash    
than     trash    
van          
aw ay eat ell est ice
caw away beat bell best dice
claw bay cheat cell chest ice
draw bray cleat dell crest mice
flaw clay eat dwell jest nice
gnaw day feat farewell nest price
jaw decay greet fell pest rice
law delay heat hell quest slice
paw display meat sell rest spice
raw flay neat shell test splice
saw gay peat smell unrest thrice
slaw gray pleat spell vest twice
straw hay seat swell west vice
thaw jay treat tell zest  
  lay wheat well    
  may   yell    
  nay        
  okay        
  pay        
  play        
  pray        
  quay        
  ray        
  relay        
  replay        
  say        
  slay        
  spray        
  stay        
  stray        
  sway        
  they        
  today        
  tray        
  way        
ick ide ight ill in ine
brick bride bright bill bin brine
chick decide delight chill chin decline
click glide fight dill din define
flick hide flight drill fin dine
kick pride fright fill gin fine
lick ride height frill grin line
nick side knight gill in mine
pick slide light grill kin nine
quick stride might hill pin pine
Rick tide night ill shin shine
sick wide plight Jill skin shrine
slick   right kill sin sine
stick   sight krill spin spine
thick   slight mill thin swine
tick   tight pill tin tine
trick   tonight quill twin twine
wick     shrill win vine
      sill within whine
      skill   wine
      spill    
      still    
      swill    
      thrill    
      thrill    
      till    
      trill    
      will    
ing ink ip it ock op
bring blink blip admit block coop
cling brink chip bit clock droop
fling drink dip fit cock hoop
king fink drip flit crock loop
ping ink flip grit dock scoop
ring link grip hit flock snoop
sing mink hip it frock stoop
sling pink lip kit hock troop
spring rink nip knit jock  
sting shrink quip lit knock  
string sink rip mit lock  
swing stink ship pit mock  
thing think sip quit o’clock  
wing wink skip sit rock  
wring   slip skit shock  
zing   snip slit smock  
    strip snit sock  
    tip spit stock  
    trip split    
    whip twit    
    zip wit    
ore ot uck ug ump unk
bore apricot buck bug bump bunk
chore blot chuck dug clump chunk
core bot cluck hug dump drunk
fore clot duck jug grump dunk
gore cot luck lug hump flunk
lore dot muck mug jump funk
more forgot puck plug lump hunk
ore got pluck pug plump junk
pore hot stuck rug pump lunk
score jot struck shrug rump plunk
shore knot truck smug slump punk
sore lot tuck snug stump skunk
spore not yuck thug thump slunk
store plot   tug trump spunk
swore pot       sunk
tore rot       trunk
wore shot        
yore slot        
  spot        
  tot        
  trot        

Tips and Tricks for Teaching Reading

When beginning to teach your child to read, you will want to blend information from word families and sight words to help your child start identifying words.

To do this, pick a list of words that matches their age-level and start practicing those words only. When your child can identify these words in a text, it means that they are beginning to see the patterns and identify those high-frequency words in writing.

When you begin teaching word families, start with one of the easier ones first, like am. Once they can identify am, sound it out, and find words that end in am, move to a more complicated word.

Once your child understands how to form these word families into actual words, they will be able to spell and read them!

If your child struggles with some of the foundational skills associated with reading, consider adding a workbook to their daily practice. ArgoPrep has worked with educators to deliver high-quality practice that will entertain, educate, and excite your child. These workbooks are especially helpful for students who might need a little extra attention to reading comprehension, English language skills, and more.

begin teaching word families

Conclusion

My daughter loves to build things with Magnatiles. She will grab all of the tiles and construct fantastic castles, homes, and more with the simple building tools. But what happens when she builds a weak base? We all know. It can’t stand, it’s not steady, and it falls.

Learning how to read can kind of be similar to building a weak structure. Identifying something as simple as a word family seems like a mindless activity for us. Still, for kids, it’s necessary to understand the increasingly tricky skills that kids learn for reading comprehension.

learn word families

Taking the time to learn word families will help them identify words more quickly and spell with more accuracy. This list of 37 high-frequency word families is a great place to start, but once your child masters it, consider researching more challenging word families to increase comprehension!

A post about the importance of word families and how to teach reading with word families. Daily suggestions, ideas, and activities for teachers provided.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading

Today I am sharing about one part of my word study program, how to teach reading with word families. I will be sharing how I run my schedule during the week and provide you with a day-to-day plan of action. I have seen a lot of success with this program. My students are thoroughly engaged, actively learning, and building their reading and spelling skills.

Why Teach Word Families?

Learning to read the English language is a difficult task. The English language follows so many different patterns and rules that it is often confusing for our younger students learning to read.

Word families, also called phonograms or “chunks,” provide us with groups of words that have a   predictable pattern or “chunk.” These words have the same ending, and they all rhyme. This makes learning a set of words (a word family) easier on our beginning readers.

Word Families Throughout the Week

After learning our word families for the week, my students can read and spell a group of words independently. They feel incredibly successful at their accomplishment. They now have a larger bank of words they can read in the books they are encountering.

Teaching my students word families is an incredibly efficient way for me to teach my students how to read. Since we learn word families each week, I wanted to create a set of activities that students find fun and engaging, yet help them to become fluent in reading the words within a word family.

Monday Activities for Teaching Word Families

Each week we focus on two-word families at a time. I start with teaching the short vowel word families and start with the short ‘a’ word families. The words within those word families often follow a CVC or CVCC pattern. They are simple words that children often know and understand.

I introduce our word families one at a time, and as a class, we brainstorm all the words we can think of that end with that sound pattern. Then, I encourage my students to use our alphabet posters above our whiteboard as a reference. I will say, “take each letter one at a time and put it in front of the letter pattern. Does it make a word that makes sense?” If it makes sense, I ask them to put up their hand and share with the class. I record the words they come up with on our word chart. We discuss the meaning of each word.

Some weeks I like to switch things up, and I will have my students line up and rotate one at a time or in pairs to write down a word that they have come up with. I will sit close by and help if needed.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family posters

After we have our list of new words on our chart, my students will copy those words in their word family books. They are practicing their handwriting skills and rereading their new words at this time.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family book Phonics are Fun

I send our word family book home on Monday for families to practice at home all week.

Tuesday Activities for Teaching Word Families

Each morning during our carpet time, we review our word family words. I use a pocket chart to hold our word family word cards. Our star of the day enjoys pointing to the words as the class reads them aloud.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family cards

We also play phonics games to review our words and build our reading skills. I have these activities ready during my small groups and available for students to use during free time or “fast finisher” activities. We enjoy doing puzzles where you have to match a word with a picture.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family puzzles

We use our letter magnets or whiteboard markers to spell out our words. This activity makes a great literacy center!

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family spelling

I use metal drip pans for everything. They are so versatile and functional. They store easy and sit nicely on a shelf or against a wall. Check them out HERE!

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family spelling

I also put up a poster of word family words in the classroom for students to practice reading during the week. They can use this poster if they need ideas during our making words activities.

Wednesday Activities for Teaching Word Families

We review our words again during the morning meeting. I have the students close their eyes and spell words together or one by one aloud. We complete morning messages that have word family words missing. I switch up the activities we do together at the carpet to keep things fresh, so they are thinking in different ways.

We work on our reading fluency. Together, we print, build, make, spin, stamp, and draw our words. We do things where we are reading these words over and over. My students enjoy these activities because they stay busy and have fun too!

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family spin and spell

We spin to make word family words using a paper clip and record them in our booklets.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family word work

We complete our word work with our word family words. By repeating each word in different ways, my students are learning how to read, spell, and understand word meaning.

Thursday Activities for Teaching Word Families

During our morning meeting, we take out our small whiteboards and markers and practice recording our words. Sometimes they sit with a partner and quiz each other, and sometimes I will give them words to record. This exercise is a quick assessment for me to check how they are doing. This activity could also be a part of your small group time. We work more on word meaning. We have a few activities that we rotate through each week to keep things interesting. For instance, we complete our fill-in sheets for morning work, where we have to pick the correct word to fit in an empty space. We also create read, draw, and color books where we have to read a sentence, dray its meaning, and color the picture.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - phonics are fun word family books

They also have read and write the room mini-books to work on during literacy centers.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - read and write the room

Friday Activities for Teaching Word Families

On Friday, we do one final review of our words in the pocket chart before adding them to our word wall. We also have a spelling quiz where I give my students a mix of our spelling words, sight words, and word family words together. They do an excellent job after all this review!

I also have a few simple and fun activities set up for small groups, literacy centers, and “fast finishers” for students to complete for further review. They love to “create” words using Play-Doh and recording the words they find.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family playdough mats

Making their word family ties to wear around the class is fun too. They bring these home to show their parents their learning.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family ties

Word Families Homework

After printing the word family words in their books, they take them home in their home reading folder. Read about how I set up my home reading program and grab some FREE folder handouts HERE.

Once at home, I instruct my students and their parents that they should be reading through their words each day. They can make them, spell them on a sheet of paper, or any activity they want. Occasionally, I will send an activity home if they are looking for something extra.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading - word family book

Resources for Teaching Word Families

You can check out all of the materials and activities you’ve seen in this post, in my Phonics are Fun comprehensive word family units for short vowels HERE. There’s a bundle available too!

word families phonics activities curriculum for kids

See the word families resource in action!  

Classroom Materials for Teaching Word Families

Wanting to grab some of the great learning resources that I used in this post? Check them out on Amazon.

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!

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It’s a joyful thing to watch children grow into successful readers of the English Language. The English Language follows many different patterns and has various rules making it difficult for younger students learning to read.

One of the best strategies in teaching children reading is the use of word families, because they easily pick up on repetitions and patterns.

How To Make Reading Fun For Children With Word Families

What are word families?

Word families are groups of words that follow a similar pattern. Grouping of words with a similar pattern is a way for children to learn a large number of words in a short time. An example is the EE vowel groupings in All About Reading Level 2, where words like tree, feet, and deep are outlined in the same word list.

This approach of teaching is effective because children pick up on the repetition and understand the basic sounds, thereby becoming more confident in their decoding skills.

Learning with word families is fun for kids because they rhyme and double as means of teaching decoding skills and rhyming skills.

How to teach with word families

Here are some steps to follow when trying to teach kids to read with word families

  • Start with one syllable words
  • Create a word family anchor chart
  • Make new words with the pattern
  • Engage your students interactively

It is also important to note that this alone is not enough. Suitable materials are inevitable in the teaching process.

Girl reading book

Resources needed to start teaching word families

Some of the basic materials needed are

  • Plastic letters
  • Anchor chart paper
  • Mr. Sketch Markers
  • Tabletop magnetic dry erase board

It is important to have a sound curriculum in mind such as the revised childcare Chifley. Pictures and games are excellent approaches that can be used in incorporating word families into your reading lessons.

Pictures

This is one of the easiest ways of introducing new words to kids. It helps children realize that letters create words and have a distinct sound to them.

Children make connections between objects they see and words used to describe it even before they talk. Using this natural way of learning, children learn new words and understand that when letter sounds come together, they form a word.

Games

Introducing games to the reading class is an easy way for kids to pick up reading as children love fun. Letter blocks, cards can be used to create games for kids to assist the learning process

The final step will be using word families in context. As the aim of the whole process is to make children good readers of the English Language, it is essential to introduce the words they have learnt into simple sentences.

These sentences are constructed in a fun way and not too long so as not to bore the kids. Children can be made to identify word families in the sentences by circling them out and this makes them happy as their reading fluency increases.

In the bid to increase retention,

  • Every lesson must begin with a revision of previously taught word families
  • Every lesson must end with fluency practice(reading)

Word families  guarantee a fun approach in teaching children to read.

word familyTeaching reading to young children can be an arduous task given that the English language follows numerous patterns and has irregular spelling. Read on to learn about how word families can help simplify reading instruction and improve reading comprehension.

What are Word Families?

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. Here are the two word families that are commonly used in reading instruction for beginning and struggling readers:

  • Rhyming Word Family

Words belong to a rhyming word family if they have a similar ending sound. 

For example, the words, cake, ‘make’, ‘bake’, and ‘take’ have a similar combination of words at the end – which also sound similar.

  • Morphological Word Family

Words belong to a morphological word family if they share a common structure and meaning.

For example, the words, ‘read’, ‘reading’, ‘reads’, ‘reader’, ‘misread’, and ‘reread’, belong to a word family because they share a common root word, ‘read’, with different prefixes and suffixes added.

Why Focus on Word Families?

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.

Studies suggest that children learn to connect what they have already learned to what they are currently learning through by observing word similarities. Understanding the concept of root words and their derivatives can help children deduce the meaning of other words in the word family. Experts also say that children tend to read quicker because of the familiarity of the words in word families. They learn to analyze language and understand common grammar rules. 

For example, knowing that the prefix ‘un’ can indicate negation – this knowledge will help children infer the meaning of words with this prefix, as long as they know the root word. 

They will understand that ‘unhappy’ is the opposite of ‘happy’ and that ‘untrue’ means ‘not true’

Similarly, understanding that the suffix ‘er’ can indicate more of something, will help them deduce that ‘easier’ means ‘more easy’ and ‘happier’ means ‘more happy’.

How to Teach Word Families

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’. 

For morphological word families, classroom instruction should focus on developing the child’s awareness of morphemes, which are the smallest units of language that have meaning. As children grow, they come across academic vocabulary with prefixes or suffixes, such as the prefix ‘hydro’ which means ‘water’ or ‘hydrogen’. So, morphological awareness has a major role to play in comprehension and thus, literacy. 

MDA Avaz Reader And Word Families

Reading instruction can be a complex process and teachers might not have the bandwidth to attend to each child and customize the lesson plans for their individual needs. Assistive tools such as MDA Avaz Reader can be great teaching aids and assist teachers in providing tailor made instruction. The reading assistance app can also be used at home to help children while they read as part of their homework or while reading as a hobby.

MDA Avaz Reader has several exciting stories that give children their daily reading practice. You can also import a PDF into the app or take a photo of the storybook or textbook the child wants to read. In case the child needs help with a word, they can tap the ‘Hint’ button to get rhyming and prefix/suffix hints. Please note that the app also provides additional hints such as syllable, picture and audio hints to help children comprehend a word effectively.

Word families can accelerate vocabulary acquisition by significantly increasing the number of words children have at their command. To achieve reading proficiency, instruction must also focus on teaching other reading strategies concurrently. More importantly, giving ready access to help with digital assistive tools reassures children. It also encourages them to immerse themselves into reading, resulting in improved reading skills and literacy.

Word Families: Proven Method for Teaching Reading

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What Are Word Families?

What are word families? They are groups of words that have a common feature or pattern. They have the same letter combinations — a similar sound — and they’re a wonderful tool for those new to spelling.

Word Families List

According to the National Council of Teachers of English, there are 37 common word families. Below, we’ll show you each word family, as well as example words that belong to each word family. Ready to get phonetic?

Word Families

Spelling and Reading With Word Families

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.

Let’s take the word family «all» as an example. This will allow students to learn simple spelling words, such as «ball» and «call.» But, that understanding can be built upon, when you consider how many other words belong to the «all» family. From «ball», students can advance to tougher words, such as «enthrall», «install», and «squall».

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Word Family Reading Comprehension. 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.

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