Unlocking Literacy: Engaging Activities with Enchanted Learning Word Families

Learning to read is a crucial part of a child's early elementary education. Children tackle sight words, phonics, reading comprehension, and word families. Word families are groups of words with the same ending rhyme, also called a phonogram. These words are used strategically by educators when teaching children to read because of their predictable and easy-to-distinguish spelling patterns. For an extensive list of word-family words, Enchanted Learning is a helpful resource.

The Importance of Word Families

To be successful in teaching any concept, it's crucial to understand why we teach it. Word families are a perfect tool for demonstrating the connection between spoken word and written text. Word families sound the same at the end and are spelled the same at the end. The consistency of word families can aid in helping students understand how our language and written text are related and guide these fluent speakers to become fluent readers.

Superior Decoding Tool

The goal of phonics instruction is to give every child the tools they need to decode words. Teaching word families and their natural patterns is a valuable tool. When students become truly fluent in reading the phonograms (the ending rhyme) of word families, they can decode a word with a "chunk" rather than making each individual phoneme (sound). This strategy also gives them access to success with an exponential number of words. When students are comfortable with the 38 most common phonograms (the rhyme part of the word), they can decode 654 words.

Confidence Booster

Engagement is key in everything we do, and one surefire way to increase engagement is to give students confidence in what they are doing. When students see the patterns and understand the simplicity of word families, they can actually read them. Suddenly, they perceive themselves as true readers, and every word they read is an imaginary "vote" towards this new identity. As they continue in this process, they gain confidence in themselves as readers that (when nurtured) can lead to a lifelong love for it.

When to Introduce Word Families

It is important to consider when we should be teaching word families. Phonological Awareness is essential in all phonics instruction. Phonological Awareness skills are involved in word-family instruction.

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Concept of Spoken Word

Students must understand the difference between spoken sounds, syllables, words, and sentences. When we say "bat," our students need to have an understanding that "bat" is a complete word that is made up of sounds. Without this understanding, looking at the written word bat has little to no schema for students and makes it difficult to understand.

Rhyming

Rhyming words sound the same at the end; word-family words look the same at the end. Without a solid PA skill set with rhyming words, your students will likely struggle in internalizing the ending-chunk in word families. If you notice students sounding out all three phonemes in a word-family word, weakness here could be the culprit. To be fully successful with word families, students first need to have a fully developed rhyme understanding.

Beginning Sounds

Word family instruction and activities are heavily rooted in a child’s ability to remove and replace the onset of a word. If your students don’t have phonological practice in this area, you may notice they can’t do this easily or need to see a written model before they can. Another skill you will need to consider before introducing word families to your class are your students’ fluency with letters & sounds. If the majority of your students haven’t mastered this concept, they are not ready for word families. Word-family instruction relies on your students being comfortable with blending the onset-and-rime. If they don’t recognize the letter or can’t produce its sound, don’t expect them to blend words.

Engaging Activities for Teaching Word Families

Teaching word families is an enjoyable experience for students and their teacher. When students are prepared for this instructional milestone, it is a bright and cheerful time. Word families are fun because there are so many resources available to teach them.

Model and Excite

Be ready to explain to students the concept of word families in your best student-friendly language. Don’t use fancy terms (like onset-and-rime) or prolonged explanations of how they work; students just need a knowledgeable model (that’s you!) to tenderly demonstrate and explain the pattern. A good way to demonstrate word families is by initially writing them on a whiteboard or chart paper. Along with clear modeling, it’s also great practice to excite your students during this time about the benefits they will reap from learning the word family. To excite your students, use language like, “Wow! I bet you can already read ALL of these words on the list! Little readers, let me see what you can do!” Pump up your students to anticipate their success so that (when it becomes evident) they feel accomplished and confident.

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Keep Engagement in Mind

Ditch the worksheets as much as possible. Remember that engagement is key to all instruction. Look for curriculum and activities that will keep your students engaged. Some major items to search for are those that include movement, singing, and routine. All three of these engagement strategies are backed by research. You can’t go wrong with any activity that includes them.

Group and Independent Practice

The "I do, we do, you do" model of teaching works. Before executing your Word Family Lesson, ask yourself if you include enough of the three modalities: Teaching (I do), Guided Practice (We do), and Independent Practice (You do.) After you’ve done your part in teaching and modeling, be sure to include opportunity for guided and independent practice of these skills. Our students need all three modalities to become fluent word-family readers.

Provide Visual Support

Once you’ve taught the concept, be sure to provide your visual learners with access to a poster, anchor chart, or word list that they can refer to. Having a place they can look to gain understanding during independent work is really empowering to students.

DIY Word Family Game

One engaging activity involves creating a DIY word family game.

Draw three large circles on a sheet of construction paper and write a separate word family at the top of each.
Use a circle punch to create many smaller circles.
Using lists like those at Enchanted Learning, write about 10 examples for each word family on the circles.
Start by reviewing your word families. Practice the sounds and read the word families on your game board.
When it’s time to play, mix up your piles of circles with words. Set them next to your game board.
The child's task is to match the words to the correct word family circle.

You can make many variations on this game. If you plan on using it over and over, laminate the game board before you write your word families in the circle. Make it more challenging by leaving the word families off the game board.

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Word Family Flower Activity

Begin with a key word.
Help children think of words that rhyme. It’s okay to give clues to help students begin or to keep them going.
Ask children to think of words that end in -an (pan, fan, ran, man, tan, van, plan, scan, bran, began).
Check to be sure they understand word meanings. It helps to say the sounds (not the letter names) clearly as you write each word, one under another.
If children are engaged and excited, continue by adding words in the “extended word family”: words that contain -an + t or -an + d. If you do this, be sure to pronounce the last sound clearly, as it may be difficult for students to hear.
Sing a variation of the BETWEEN THE LIONS song “If You Can Read at”. Begin with “If You Can Read a-n, an, then you can read _,” and decide which words from your list to include.
Cut out petal shapes to be added to the flower. Students take a blank “petal,” write an -an word, and, if possible, illustrate it.

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