Word Families
Vowels (a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y) are tricky because they say two sounds so they are taught as a word family. Word families consist of words that rhyme by changing the beginning sound. For example, the _at family: cat, mat, chat. Several activities including poems, white boards, practice sheets and stories are used to learn about a word family. Colorful posters are displayed in the classroom that children can refer to. As their reading progresses they will begin to look for these chunks of sound to help them figure out an unknown word.
Thus far in the year we have talked about the following word families:
_at cat, mat, hat, pat
_an can, pan, fan, man
_it kit, fit, hit, bit
_in pin, tin, fin, shin, spin
_et net, pet, wet, set, get
_ing ring, sing, swing, thing, sting
_all ball, call, mall, fall
_op top, pop, shop, stop
_en pen, ten, hen, went
_un sun, fun, hunt, under
_ide slide, hide, ride, side
_ou/ow ouch, house, cow, now
_er/ir/ur her, stir, fur
_ar star, far, car, char
Thus far in the year we have talked about the following word families:
_at cat, mat, hat, pat
_an can, pan, fan, man
_it kit, fit, hit, bit
_in pin, tin, fin, shin, spin
_et net, pet, wet, set, get
_ing ring, sing, swing, thing, sting
_all ball, call, mall, fall
_op top, pop, shop, stop
_en pen, ten, hen, went
_un sun, fun, hunt, under
_ide slide, hide, ride, side
_ou/ow ouch, house, cow, now
_er/ir/ur her, stir, fur
_ar star, far, car, char