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
| bat | cat | fat | hat | sat |
AN Word Family
| can | fan | man | pan | ran |
AD Word Family
| bad | dad | had | mad | sad |
AP Word Family
| cap | lap | map | nap | tap |
AG Word Family
| bag | rag | sag | tag | wag |
OP Word Family
| cop | hop | mop | pop | top |
OT Word Family
| cot | dot | got | hot | pot |
OG Word Family
| dog | fog | hog | jog | log |
UG Word Family
| bug | hug | jug | mug | rug |
UT Word Family
| but | cut | gut | hut | nut |
UN Word Family
| bun | fun | nun | run | sun |
ET Word Family
| get | jet | let | met | net |
EG Word Family
| beg | leg | Meg | peg |
EN Word Family
| hen | Ken | men | pen | ten |
IN Word Family
| bin | fin | pin | tin | win |
IT Word Family
| bit | hit | kit | pit | sit |
IG Word Family
| big | dig | jig | pig | wig |
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.
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