Kindergarten Word Families

A word family consists of a group of words that share an ending part of a word (rime), e.g. rug, bug & hug. In addition to recognizing rhymes, knowledge of short vowel sounds is crucial when learning to read and spell. Interestingly, short vowel sounds can be the hardest for beginner readers to match to letters.

Word Families

Many reading programs introduce word families in kindergarten as they offer exposure to both short vowels and rhymes. The following word families were introduced to both of my children in kindergarten:

Listed in the order they were introduced.

AT Word Family

AN Word Family

AD Word Family

AP Word Family

AG Word Family

OP Word Family

OT Word Family

OG Word Family

UG Word Family

UT Word Family

UN Word Family

ET Word Family

EG Word Family

EN Word Family

IN Word Family

IT Word Family

IG Word Family

Many of our children were exposed to word families at a very early age through nursery rhymes. In fact, children who enter kindergarten familiar with nursery rhymes tend to learn to read with more ease.