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 Charts
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.
Word Families are a group of words with the same ending. For example cat, rat, mat, hat, bat are all part of the “at” word family. Learning about word families is a key part of learning to read. Children can pick up on patterns and rhyming sounds very quickly which in turn lends to reading confidence and success.
How to use Word Family Printable Charts:
Our word family worksheets can be adapted to many different levels based on your needs. Younger children can color them in as you say the rhyming words together.
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Progressive students can match a letter tile over each picture for the beginning letter sound. Advanced children can write the letter or entire word next to the picture.
Tip: Print a classroom set and mount to colored construction paper. Hang them throughout the classroom for visual interest. Additionally, if you can print these at smaller sizes to make flashcards for your students.
Word families, huh? Teaching word families can be confusing, but it really doesn’t have to be. Here are 7 really simple steps for teaching your students to use word families to improve reading progress.
My very first teaching job was in a first-grade classroom, so I definitely understand the importance of teaching word families. Even though I had an additional reading certification as a Reading Specialist, you don’t learn everything you need to know in college. There was a lot of trial and error, but I finally came up with these straightforward steps for teaching word families.
Teaching students how to actively use word family knowledge is a reading strategy that will help students to read unknown words. Your kiddos will likely use this throughout their elementary years.
…one strategy that every student needs to have in their reading tool chest.
With lots of modeling, guided instruction, and independent practice, your students will be able to identify word families and then apply that understanding to read other unfamiliar words.
Below are 7 simple steps for teaching word families in the classroom:
1. Start with one-syllable words that can be broken down by the onset and rime.
Onset: consonant or consonant cluster found at the beginning of a word
Rime: usually a vowel and a consonant that is found at the end of the word
Example: clap: cl (onset) /ap (rime)
2. When you first teach word families, start with just one at a time. If you teach kindergarten or first grade, you may want to introduce a new word family each week. More advanced students will benefit from a mix of word families. I have had third-grade students who still needed this kind of reading strategy and fourth graders that still worked on this strategy in the intervention / RTI group.
3. Because you teach your students to see patterns in words and make analogies, you will want to draw this to their attention. Decide which word family you will begin with. I usually begin with either -at or -ap. Use a picture book that models words with -ap. Before reading, explain to students that you will be looking for words with the word family -ap (or whatever pattern you want).
4. Use an anchor chart and write the word family at the top. I am going to use -ap as an example. As you are reading, stop and model for students that you notice a word is in the -ap word family. Write the word on the anchor chart. Stop, discuss, and write down any other -ap words while reading.
5. After reading the picture book, use a whiteboard and write the -ap word from the book… “flap.” Explain to students that the word flap is in the word family. Model for them how easy it is to change the first letter to make new words. Place a good amount of emphasis on the sounds the letters make.
Example:
flap
cap
tap
map
trap
6. Go back to the word family anchor chart. Have students engage and give you examples of other words that fit into that word family. Have students write the words on the anchor chart.
7. After introducing at least one word family from each vowel, you will want to start having students practice them together. FREEBIE for YOU.
My word family FREEBIE: Shake-a-Word Mini Download includes the following:
- Common Word Family Chart
- Shake-a-Word printable
- Is it a Real WORD? printable / anchor chart
Want more? FREE classroom resources, engaging strategies, and simple planning for teachers… coming straight to your inbox.
I’m sure you’ve heard this saying before, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” There’s so much truth and wisdom in there. With a minor change this truth can apply to learning in our classrooms. It might sound something like this: Tell a student a fact and they learn it for a day, involve them in the lesson and they learn it for a lifetime. Involving our students in the learning process is the difference between learning for a day and mastery. This is why I love and use interactive anchor charts in many, if not most, of my lessons.
What is an Interactive Anchor Chart?
As you probably know, an anchor chart is a chart or poster you use in the teaching of a lesson to display information or examples about what you are teaching. An anchor chart is a great learning tool because it gives students something to refer back to after the lesson.
An interactive anchor chart is a chart that is not ready-made before the lesson. It’s incomplete or even blank. The students help to create the anchor chart as part of the lesson. Not only does this provide the same learning reminder as a traditional anchor chart, but since students were involved in creating it there’s a sense of ownership in it too.
When asked about a lesson or skill using an anchor chart as a learning tool, students often read or provide the exact information found on a traditional anchor chart. However, when asked about a lesson or skill using an interactive anchor chart students are able to provide much more detail about what they learned, recalling more than what is shown on the chart. That’s the power of interaction.
How I Use Interactive Anchor Charts
In my classroom, I really love starting with a blank sheet of chart paper. As I introduce the the topic or skill, the students help me add the title or focus to the chart. When teaching letters, numbers, or word families this starts with adding the letters or numbers to the middle of the page.
As I teach, we add more to the chart. When teaching word families, one of the favorite (and most effective) parts is turning the letters in word family characters. The students just go crazy for this and they love trying to guess what each letter will become. This connection of the letter to a character really helps them remember the word family and its sound.
Once we have gone over the letters, their sounds and the characters, it is time to add some examples to the chart. I might offer a couple of examples at the beginning to get them started as I teach and point out the word family sound.
Then, I have the students provide the other examples. We add the word cards that the students helped to create and if a student comes up with another word we add that too! It’s all part of the process that leads to them taking ownership of the lesson and the learning.
The interactive anchor chart is the first step in the lesson process in my classroom. Find out more about how I teach Word Families here.
Using Interactive Anchor Charts as Learning Tools
Once the chart is done, the learning is not over. The anchor charts remain on display in the classroom. Due to space limitations I can only have a limited number, but I like to rotate them out as we learn or review skills and concepts.
I teach my students from the beginning of the year that the classroom is filled with learning tools. I encourage them to use the learning tools to help them when they are working. Not only does this include anchor charts, but it also includes things like the classroom alphabet, the word wall, the desk nameplates and more. By teaching students to use the tools around them, you can teach them to be an active part in the learning process and to not just rely on asking for the answer. I don’t know about you, but that’s a skill I want my students to have in class and in life!
As students work on practice activities, writing journals, or anything really, I refer them to the anchor chart. It’s so amazing to watch as they find that connection to help them work independently.
Creating Individual Anchor Charts
After we have created our class anchor chart, I love to follow up the lesson by allowing students to create their own, individual, anchor chart. This is not only a great reinforcement activity but it gives students an opportunity to work through the lesson and find areas of misunderstanding or confusion.
Students create a smaller version of the anchor chart complete with the title, characters and examples. The students love having their own chart and I often find them referring back to them when an anchor chart is no longer posted in the classroom.
Remember that issue about space, well these smaller, individual anchor charts are great to post in the classroom too. They take up so much less space. I like to creating skill specific areas around the room that group like skills and concepts together. So one one area of the wall you might find all our number charts and in another area all our word family charts.
Learning Word Families with Interactive Anchor Charts
Over the years I have created so many different interactive anchor charts because I believe in their effectiveness so much. Look at some of the fun you can have with these word family anchor charts.
You can find all of these word family anchor charts and activities in the Emily Education store.
You can also find each of the word family anchor chart sets individually.
More Interactive Anchor Charts
If you love interactive anchors as much as I do, you might want to use them for more than word families. Here are just a few of my favorites. Check out the store for the skill or concept you are teaching. You just might find exactly what you need to help your students get more involved in the learning process.
Save these Ideas!
Pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily come back when you need more tips and ideas for using interactive anchor charts in your classroom.
W is for Words.
We have an early reader in our house, a gal who just can’t get enough of words to say, words to read. Our phonics flip chart is our friend!
We made it last fall and with the help of that book, my daughter can sound out and read short words like a champ. However, she’s slow when it comes to sounding out words with blends. 
Time for a new phonics chart! These are so easy to make and to use. They take mere minuets to make and it’s nice to listen to her chant out her “words” while I am doing the dishes or whatever. Our new flip chart focuses on blending (or chunking) words.
How to Make a Word Families Book
- We used a pack of the 3×5 index cards that come on a binder.
- Cut all of the cards so that roughly 2/3rds of the card was on the right and 1/3 on the left.
- Then I used this list of most common word families as discovered through the book, Kid Writing, and added them in the top cover.
- I also wrote the endings on all the cards in the chart.
Then I added the first letters and beginning blends. Some of the blends we added to our chart included: ab, ad, bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, tr, th, sh, ch, wh, sch, sk, sn, sm, sp, st, str, sw, kn, etc.
The majority of the words in the English language can be created from the blending of these “word families” and the various “beginning” combinations.
This is a great way to help kiddos understand how to break down and “chunk” their words.
To make this a bit more challenging, ask your kiddos to use the word they created in a sentence. It is fun, not all of the blends “mix” to make real words and it’s cute to hear the definitions and “sentences” Lena uses with her pretend words.
Add a kitchen timer, and my 5 year old is now homeschooling herself! If only math were as easy!
If you are learning sight words, check out our favorite way for kids to independently practice those!
Your Child Can!
Do you have any reading tips or any favorite manipulatives that you have made to help your kiddos learn?
Rachel is the founder of the blog, One Crazy House. She is the co-author of 101 Kids Activities that are the Bestest, Funnest Ever! and The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband and six children.
There are so many ways a word can be related to another. Understanding these relations between words will help you build your vocabulary. Word families are one such way to explore how words relate to one another. So what is the word family? A group of words that have a common root word with different prefixes and suffixes is known as a word family.
Word families refer to groups of words that follow a certain set of letter patterns with the root word fixed for all words within the same group. This implies that the words belonging to the same group have common characteristics. Word families are also known as chunks, times, or groups.
- Most Common Word Families for Beginners
- Why Focus on Word Families?
- How to Study Word Families?
- Is it important to know about word families?
- How are word families formed?
- What is the order in which word families should be studied?
- How many word families are there in English?
Have a look at the following words:
- Helper
- Helped
- Unhelpful
- Helping
- Helpful
All these words come under a single word family. So what do you think they have in common? These words have the common root word ‘help’. This in turn means that all these words are members of the ‘help’ word family. Suffixes or prefixes are added to the root word to form derivatives of a root word.
Word families most often occur in rhymes and poems. For example:
- Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.
The following word families are used in the above rhyme:
- ock- dock, clock
- ive- five, hive;
- ine- nine, fine.
You can even try out our other articles on How to Improve Your Vocabulary as well to expand your knowledge base.
There are thirty seven common word families according to the National Council of Teachers of English. Given below is a list of the various word families with examples for each family. So get ready to explore!
- ack: back, crack, hack, sack
- ain: gain, grain, main, complain
- ake: sake, make, cake, fake
- ale: pale, male, sale, scale
- all: all, ball, mall, call
- ame: game, came, lame, same
- an: an, ban, can, pan
- ank: prank, rank, sank, thank
- ap: cap, map, slap, trap
- ash: ash, dash, rash, stash
- at: gnat,cat, fat,pat
- ate: hate, gate, late, mate
- aw: slaw, raw, paw, saw
- ay: lay, gay, may, pay
- eat: peat, neat, heat, seat
- ell: hell, shell, tell, smell
- est: best, chest, vest, quest
- ice: thrice, price, nice, rice
- ick: nick, stick, pick, trick
- ide: bride,glide, side, guide
- ight: tight, fight, tonight, night
- ill: chill, drill, still
- in: inn,tin,kin
- ine: vine, mine, nine, pine
- ing: spring,string,sting
- ink: pink, ink,drink
- ip: lip, ship, skip,dip
- it: sit, hit,quit
- ock: clock, stock, rock,shock
- op: cop, hop, mop, top
- ore: bore, more, sore, tore
- ot: got, hot, not, rot
- uck: buck, duck luck, tuck
- ug: bug, hug, mug, rug
- ump: bump, dump, jump, pump
- unk: chunk, punk, sunk
Few other word families that occur regularly:
- ad- sad, mad, bad
- ar-bar, car, star
- en-men, pen,ten
- ent- tent, went, sent
- oil- oil, coil, soil
- oom-doom, groom, loom
Why Focus on Word Families?
Getting yourself familiar with word families has its advantages. An understanding of different word families will help you learn to read. Building your vocabulary will also be simple with the help of word families. Being able to identify common features and patterns among words is a foundation for developing your speaking skills.
Scholars also suggest that children generally connect what they have already discovered to what they are currently learning. This happens through the process of observing word similarities. Hence knowing the concept of root words and their derivatives will help you infer the meaning of other words in the word family. Familiarity with word families will also increase your pace of reading. You will learn to analyze language and infer common grammar rules.
Let’s take the example of the word family ‘all’. This word family will help you to learn simple spelling words like, ‘call’, ‘hall’, ‘mall’ etc. Later this understanding can be built upon, when you realize how many more words can be framed from the root word ‘all’. From simple words like ‘call’, you move into tougher words like ‘install’, ‘enthrall’ etc.
Read More:
- English Idioms
- Literary Devices
How to Study Word Families?
You can make use of the following key points to learn about word families:
- Begin with one-syllable words.
- Develop a word family chart at home.
- Make it a point to learn one-word family each week.
- Create new words by adding suffixes and prefixes to the root word.
- Engage in reading activities to memorize root words.
- Familiarise yourself with rhymes and poems that make use of word families.
- Engage in games and activities that deal with word families.
FAQs on Word Families
1. Is it important to know about word families?
Knowledge of word families will help you build vocabulary. Instead of simply memorizing words, you will learn to spot patterns and root words. This will in turn increase your reading fluency.
2. How are word families formed?
A word family consists of a group of words that have a single root word with different prefixes and suffixes. The addition of suffixes or prefixes results in the creation of new words(derivatives) that belong to the same word family.
3. What is the order in which word families should be studied?
There is no particular order in which word families should be covered. However the easiest starting point would be the short ‘a’ word family that includes: at, am, an, ab, ag, ap, etc.
4. How many word families are there in English?
There are thirty seven word families in English, according to the National Council of Teachers of English. These word families are 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.
Conclusion
Word families are certainly a productive way to attain a stronger vocabulary. Exposing yourself to various word families, will in turn increase your understanding of language patterns. Reinforcing the information with rhyming games and activities will accelerate your vocabulary acquisition by increasing the number of words you have at your command.
Using the thirty seven common word families, you will be able to learn about five hundred words. If other word families are included, the number of new words you learn can grow dramatically. So make sure that you have a stronghold on the different word families. You can also check out our article on Word Classes to get a grip on the concept.
What 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. Here are some of the easy word families beginning readers can use to practice reading. Print and laminate, or you can post them in your classroom walls for kids to practice.
CVC Word Families with Medial /e/
1. -et family — net, get, jet, let, wet, bet, met, pet, set, yet
2. -en family — den, hen, men, pen, yen, ten, Ben, Zen, then, when
3. -ead family — dead, read, head, tread, dread, spread, thread, shed, stead
4. -ell family — bell, tell, fell, sell, well, cell, smell, spell, swell, shell
5. -est family — best, rest, nest, vest, test, west, lest, pest, chest, quest
6. -end family — end, lend, send, bend, mend, tend, fend, blend, trend, spend
Check it out this Word Family Chart for Medial /e/
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