Tips For Teaching Word Families In Kindergarten – Including Fun Free Activities
Word families are simply one of the BEST ways to help young learners build their phonics skills. Below I talk about what why you should be teaching word families, some methods for teaching word families and some activities to practice word families. Scroll all the way to the bottom for some FREE word family activities!
Understanding Word Families
Word families are simply groups of words that share a vowel sound and have the same final sound. The simplest word families are made up of CVC words – for example the -AT family. The -AT family has the short vowel /a/ and the final consonant /t/. So the words CAT, HAT and FAT are all members of the -AT family. Simple!
The Benefits of Teaching Word Families in Kindergarten
Increase Confidence
One thing that I find every time I teach word families is that it is a “lightbulb” moment for students. They suddenly see that combining letter sounds make WORDS! They can read! It is vital to a students growth that they want to learn to read – and one of the biggest obstacles is when they feel it is too difficult. Teaching word families will help your students to have early, easy successes!
It’s fun
Word families rhyme (obviously!) which allows for many fun, hands-on activities and games. Silly sentences, songs and poems can help with listening (phonemic) skills while letter swapping or word sorting games can help with reading (and blending and decoding) skills.
Builds fluency
Reading with word families makes decoding much faster as students vocabulary and skillset increases. As students learn the different families, they are also learning “chunks” of more challenging words. For example, if students have learned the -AB, -IT and -AT families then they will have a much better chance at decoding the word habitat!
How to Teach Word Families Effectively?
Start simple! When I teach word families I start with short vowels – ALWAYS! There are plenty of words that kindergarteners know to get them used to the idea. Cat, fat, hat, mat, rat, sat – easy and VISUAL too!
Use Visuals
Even when I am IN THE ACT of teaching students to read, I sometimes forget that they CAN’T READ! Sounds silly, I know, but you (and I) can never be reminded enough….. VISUALS! For each new word family should ideally you should ideally have a set of nice, big, colorful pictures to give students that visual clue. It is a HUGE help!
Read books and play games in whole group
There is a good reason Dr. Seuss is such a well known and loved author – even now, more than 30 years after his last published book. His book are STICKY (and I don’t mean because of unwashed little hands!) Think “The Cat In The Hat” or “Hop On Pop“. Reading these book help students to HEAR rhyme before they attempt to read it. And they are lots of fun too!
Teach Explicit Phonics in Small Groups
Now that the students understand what word families are, we can get down to explicit phonics instruction. This is best done in small groups (I’d recommend 6 max, but 4 or fewer is best) so that you can have one-on-one time with each kid. Here, magnetic letters are a fantastic manipulative to use (though printed letters work fine too) as students can easily swap out the first sound to make each word in the family. For advanced groups or students, this can also be a great opportunity to introduce some simple sight words – for example “I see a cat – I see a hat“.
Get Hands-On When Learning CVC Word Families
While it true that some students learn simply by listening to a new word when they read the words, most (as in 99%) students will benefit much more when given fun and engaging activities to help them really master word families. Ideally activities will allow students to engage different skills – decoding words, activities where the write the words, even activities where they create words!
What are Some Fun Word Family Activities?
There are many different activities you can use to teach word families in your classroom – from quick, easy no prep worksheets to board games to speaking and listening activities. As mentioned above, engaging students in as many different activities that target different skills will yield the best results. Below I will share some examples of different TYPES of activities your students will love!
Elkonian boxes (Sound Boxes)
Elkonian boxes are a good way to begin to teach phonics. Put simply, an Elkonian Box are a set of boxes where each box represents one sound (NOT letter – /sh/ for example would be ONE box). In our case, we would have 3 boxes as we are teaching CVC words. Each box represents the sounds of the letters in each word. Students can use counters or other manipulatives to place into the boxes as they make the sounds, and then blend the sounds into words.
Cut and paste
Develop those fine motor skills at the same time as teaching phonics! These simple yet fun activities allow students to take their time while also learning rhyme and vocab. Brilliant!
Fluency grids
Fluency grids are grids of different words. Depending on where your students phonics skills are, you may want them to read only from one word family, from a set of word families (for example short /a/ word families), or even a random list of CVC words. Whatever the case, fluency grids should be used quickly (I use them as 5 minute warm up before guided reading) as they are, let’s just say, NOT the most fun activities. BUT, they are excellent activities to help your students become more fluent readers which is the whole point!
Read more about fluency grids here
Peg cards
These are printable word cards that take a variety of different forms. Usually they will have a picture that shows a common CVC word. For example, if you were teaching the -AT word family it may show a cat. There are then boxes below that have a variety of spellings, only one of which is correct (NOTE: This is a more advanced activity and should be introduced once students are comfortable and accurate when blending!). This activity helps students with decoding and is best done in small groups.
Click here to get from one of my fav TPT shops!
Word Family Sorting
This activity can be done in whole group or small groups, though I tend to use it more during whole group time. The idea is pretty simple, once you have introduced word families and students have had a chance to learn a few of the more common word families (for example short /a/ families -AD. -AN, -AM, and -AT) then you are ready to play! You want to use word family cards that are all mixed up. You can use cards with only pictures (tricky), cards with only words or cards with both pictures and cards. Students take a card each and simply work together to sort the cards into the correct families. Simple and fun!
Can I Use Worksheets to Teach Phonics Skills And Word Families?
Yes! While we all understand that worksheets are not the ideal way to teach reading when they are OVERUSED there is nothing wrong with using them sometimes. However, when used correctly, worksheets CAN help solidify skills, help teach simple words and build fluency. (And let’s be honest – it can help buy us a little quiet time too!) But there are some important guidelines to follow to ensure students can practice word families independently.
Click here for FREE PRINTABLE WORKSHEETS
Keep Worksheets Attractive And Visually Appealing
Kindergarten students will enjoy worksheets best when they use large, easy to read fonts. Pictures should also be clear and simple and should relate directly to the words in the worksheet to avoid confusion.
Instructions Should Be Visual
Ideally you start with a completed example as a guide, you have visual clues as to what to do or both. For example, if you have a cut-and-paste activity, make sure the letters or pictures to be cut are clearly marked and the place to stick them is, too!
Let Them Color And Draw
Kids love to draw, so it is always a good activity for kindergarten kids when they can put their art skills to work. You can do this by color coding (-AT family is red, -AN family is green, etc) or by having them color the word or picture to show their answer.
