25+ Ways to Practice Word Families at Home

We started introducing word families today and spelling them as well.  We include real and nonsense words.  There are so many reason we should be using word family studies and benefits that will grow with the child's learning.  Here are some common questions, answers, and more at home ideas.

What we love to use...

Why are word families important for early readers?

It is important that early readers (or emergent readers) are benefit from word family studies because they help children recognize (and analyze) word patterns when they are learning to read.  This is called analytic phonics.  Children understand that the importance of patterns and that words can have the same letter combinations resulting in the same sounds.

What are word families?

Word families are simply phonograms or chunks.  They can really help emergent readers begin to understand our written language that is often complicated and inconsistent.  Using predictable patterns within words children can then recognize word patterns and this makes it easier to sound out words.

Why teach word families?

Word families or phonograms (chunks) provide readers with groups of words that have patterns that are predictable and easy to learn.  These words have the same ending and they all rhyme.  Rhyming words make it easier for emergent or beginning readers to learn to ready by learning a set of words from a word family.

How do you teach word families?

Teaching word families is as easy as 1,2,3...

1. Start with one syllable rhyming words (i.e. at, in, on)
2. Create a list of word families. (anchor chart)
3. Using manipulative, make new words with the pattern provided.

Here are some fun, at home, ways to teach word families...

As always, click the links above the images....

1. Word Family Flip Book with Natural Beach Living

2. Sidewalk Word Families with 123homeschool4me

3. Word Family Hide and Seek with BetterThanHomework

4. Word Family Cups with FrugalFun4Boys

5. Lego Word Families with ThisReadingMomma

6. Learning to Read Word Families with HowWeeLearn

7. Paint Stick Word Family Ladder with SchoolTimeSnippets

8. Easter Egg Word Families with Natural Beach Living

30 more word family activities with ICanTeachMyChild