Thanks to the wonderful idea of a reader, I’ve created these Word Family Ladders. They’re similar to my beginning sound Blend Ladders, but these contain 37 common word families for your children to work on.
Click here to download the Word Family Ladders
We use plastic alphabet letters or dry erase markers to make the as many words as we can for each family. This helps children recognize common word endings.
Here are some more ideas on practicing the word families:
1. Brainstorm with your child about all the words you can make for each family. Write them on your white board as you go.
2. Read the word family story from “AlphaTales” (Scholastic) – As you read the story have your child be a “word family detective” and see if they can spot all the words in that family!
3. Use Word Family Ladders with the magnetic letters and see how many words you can make.
Click here to see my other K4 Curriculum Activities!
These activities are part of my K4 level expansion to my Letter of the Week Curriculum, click on the images below to see more activities!
Hope you enjoy!
Here is the list of Word Families and suggestions for each:
–ab: cab, lab, blab, crab, flab, grab, scab, slab, stab
–ack: back, pack, quack, rack, black, crack, shack, snack, stack, track
–ag: bag, rag, tag, brag, flag
–ail: fail, mail, jail, nail, pail, rail, sail, tail, snail, trail
–ain: main, pain, rain, brain, chain, drain, grain, plain, Spain, sprain, stain, train
–ake: bake, cake, fake, lake, make, quake, rake, take, wake, brake, flake, shake, snake
–am: ham, Sam, clam, slam, swam
–an: can, fan, man, pan, ran, tan, van, bran, plan, than
–ank: bank, sank, yank, blank, crank, drank, thank
–ap: cap, lap, map, nap, rap, tap, clap, flap, scrap, slap, snap, strap, trap, wrap
–at: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, rat, sat, brat, chat, flat, spat, that
–ay: day, may, pay, say, clay, play, pray, spray, stay, tray
–eed: feed, need, seed, weed, bleed, freed, greed, speed
–ell: bell, fell, sell, tell, well, yell, shell, smell, spell, swell
–est: best, guest, nest, pest, rest, test, vest, west, chest, crest
–ew: dew, few, knew, new, blew, chew
–ick: kick, lick, pick, quick, sick, brick, chick, click, stick, thick, trick
–ight: knight, light, might, night, right, sight, tight, bright, flight, fright, slight
–ill: fill, hill, pill, will, chill, drill, grill, skill, spill, thrill
–in: bin, fin, pin, sin, win, chin, grin, shin, skin, spin, thin, twin
–ine: fine, line, mine, nine, pine, vine, wine, shine, spine, whine
–ing: king, ring, sing, wing, bring, cling, spring, sting, string, swing, thing
–ink: link, pink, sink, wink, blink, drink, shrink, stink, think
–ip: dip, hip, lip, rip, sip, tip, chip, clip, drip, flip, grip, ship, skip, strip, trip, whip
–ob: knob, mob, rob, blob, slob, snob
–ock: knock, lock, dock, rock, sock, block, clock, frock, shock, stock
–op: cop, hop, mop, pop, top, chop, crop, drop, flop, plop, shop, stop
–ore: bore, more, sore, tore, wore, chore, score, shore, snore, store
–ot: got, dot, hot, knot, lot, not, plot, shot, spot
–out: grout, scout, shout, spout, sprout
–ow: cow, how, now, brow, chow, plow
–uck: buck, duck, luck, cluck, stuck, truck
–um: gum, hum, drum, plum, slum
–unk: junk, chunk, drunk, shrunk, stunk, trunk
-y: by, my, cry, dry, fly, fry, shy, sky, spy, try, why
Hope you enjoy learning your Word Families!
oh this is an awesome list!!!!! Thank you. I have a felt phonic set and we love to practice decoding with those I'm going to use this for sure in the new year, thanks so much!!!
Thanks, they look good!
I love this! Thank you for all you do to put such fun and creative things together to make education fun. Sammy loves loves all this stuff… especially using the dry erase markers.
wow these are great!!
Wow! Thank you so much!!!
Hi Erica,Thanks for all your great ideas and designs–they've given me lots of new things to do with my 4 year old, especially now that it's winter & cold! I posted a link back to your blog for the Christmas Preschool Activities, my son loved them! Merry Christmas!http://meditationsfortheheart.blogspot.com/
These are fantastic lists. Have you posted them for everyone to use on SpellingCity.com? Do you mind if I do? Alternatively, they have word lists organized by word families:http://www.spellingcity.com/spelling-curriculum.html
These are wonderful, and perfect for what we will be exploring within the next month.
THANK YOU!!
BBAT50: Not sure how to post them on Spelling City? You're welcome to as long as you link back to this post:http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2010/12/word-family-ladders.html That way people can get here to see more info on them.Thanks for help spreading the word!