Word Families are a group of words with the same spelling/sound pattern.
(The term can also apply to words with the same base word.)
Why teach word families? As your child/students begin to learn to read, you want them to move beyond the phase of sounding out each letter sound. Students need to learn to chunk letter patterns together and recognize their sound combination . For example, learning that the letters /i/ /n/ /g/ make the new sound /ing/ will help with reading and fluency.
Examples of some common CVC and CVCe word families are:
-at family: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, vat
-en family: Ben, den, hen, Jen, men, pen, ten
-op family: cop, hop, lop, mop, pop, sop, top
-ake family: bake, cake, fake, Jake, lake, make, rake, sake, take, wake
Give your child/students multiple ways and opportunities to practice reading word families.
