Word+Families

** Do words really have families? ** **Yes, they do!** **Word families** are groups of words that have a common feature or pattern - they have some of the same combinations of letters in them and a similar sound. Words that end with the same **chunk** of letters that you can learn how to say altogether rather than say by sounding out each letter sound **belong to the same word family**. Meet the word c at, a member of the ăt family. Now if you do not know this word, sound out the __**c**__ and add the chunk at to make (form) the word cat.

**at, b****at cat, fat, hat, mat, rat, and sat are a family of words because they all have the "at" sound and letter combination**.

Believe it or not, there are __37 word families__ in the English language (according to Wylie and Durrell ¹) : **ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at , ate, aw ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill,** ** in , ine, ing, ink, ip, it , ock, oke, op , ore, ot , uck , ug , ump, unk**

Even grown-ups never stop learning new words so don't worry, we will learn one sound, one word, and one family at a time. Discovering and practicing word families is fun - in class we make little books with practice sheets from Enchanted Learning.



We like using the computer to learn word families with shŏrt and lõng **a e i o u** (**= vowels**) sound. With Starfall² you can listen, sound-out, and add letters to chunks! Watch, listen and practice sounding out the Starfall words and before you know it, you will be ready to add your our own words to word families. It is really fun to be a word detective!

Are you ready to start practicing? Begin at the top, with **_at,** and when you have practiced with all the Starfall games on the list, after you finish the **_ug** family, give yourself a quiz. One last thing, write down your new words so that we can add them. Have fun!

Short Ăă: at _**at:** bat cat hat rat ... fat mat sat Short Ăă: an _**an**: can fan pan ran ... man Short Ĕĕ: en **_en**: men hen ten pen ... then when Short Ĕĕ: et _**et**: jet net pet wet ... let Short Ĭĭ: ig **_ig**: big dig pig wig ... Short Ĭĭ: ip **_ip**: dip rip sip zip ... Short Ŏŏ: ot **_ot**: cot dot pot hot ... lot dot rot Short Ŏŏ: og **_og**: dog fog frog log ... Short Ŭŭ: ug **_ug**: bug hug rug mug ...

Make a Match Game - Can you find the short vowel words that belong together?

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