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!
Thank you so much for all of your hard work on this and sharing it for free! I am so thankful to God for ladies like you that are willing to share! Again, THANKS! 🙂
Thanks for these. I used 2 of the ladders with my son yesterday and he loved them.
Thank You for sharing such wonderful materials!!! 🙂
These are great! You always come up with such great ideas! Thanks! 🙂
I teach kindergarten and first grade special education – my first graders think these are the best! I did a post about it, linking back to your blog. That post is here… http://vanessa.hoozh.net/2011/02/02/playing-is-learning-word-family-ladders/Thanks!
These look great! However, when I click to download them it won't take me to a download page. Has this link been discontinued?
I cannot get the word family ladders download page to come up. do you have any suggestions?
JKMOM: No, the link is still good, I just clicked on it, and the file's there to download: http://www.4shared.com/document/iR21fYZA/WordFamilyLadders.html
I just boasted about your word ladders that I downloaded some time ago. My students love them and now all those following my Facebook Page will too. I would love it if you stop by and see the post!
This is just fantastic! Love it!