Word Families: Reading Activities and Spelling Games
Students can benefit greatly from exposure to common word families within displayed word lists and interactive games. A lot of details about spelling patterns and rules can be absorbed incidently, by viewing them every day. Card and board games can provide repetitive and successful learning experiences with any word lists that students need to focus on. Learning groups of words that have similar letter patterns is a much more efficient strategy than learning individual words, and exposure to common letter strings or patterns, can be as simple as producing a set of Bingo boards and matching cards that can also be used for Memory, Snap or Go Fish.
Included in my collection, are sets of cards for many word lists, and these can be used with any of the generic Build a Board games as well. The blank templates can also be used with any set of word cards. Students write their own words (chosen from any of the card sets) onto the laminated boards, and play Bingo. Students then have the experience of writing, reading, saying and listening to the words during each game.
Whole Class Games:
These cards make a fun team game with explicit teaching about word families. (Great for when you have 5 or 10 minutes between activities, or as a useful introduction to a literacy lesson focusing on these word families.)
This is an enjoyable way to expose young learners to lots of different word families. As those who are less confident listen to their classmates calling words,they too will gain understandings and develop 'sounding out' skills that will help with both reading and spelling.
*20 cards are provided with the word families printed on one side. Each game has a list of suggested words to match, which need to then be handwritten on the back of each card (it's really tricky trying to get this to work on printers as the cards never match up). Instructions for how to play with a whole class are included.
St blends game A card game where players group words into the word families of 'st' as an onset (at the beginning of words), 'st' as a rime (at the end of the word) and words beginning with 's'. All words include short vowel sounds.
Ph Wh Gh Word Families Game A card game where players group the words into sets of 'ph' words, 'wh' words and 'gh' words. The 'gh' words make the 'g' sound and the 'g' sound in different words.
Ball Card Game - all ell ill A card game where players group words into the word families of 'all', 'ell' and 'ill'.
or ar er Word Families A card game where players group words into the word families of 'or', 'ar' and 'er'.
ir er ur Word Families A card game where players group words into the different letter patterns that make the sound of 'er'.
A card game with beginning blends, short vowels and simple letter strings. (36 word cards and 9 special instruction cards) The letter strings at the ends of these words are ing, nd, mp, ck, sh, st.
A card game to reinforce the long 'i' sound made with bossy e on the end of words like 'tide' and spine'. There are 12 words with the short 'i' sound included in this game to ensure players are seeing the difference.
A game with cards and a shared board. Players say each word aloud and place it on the right spot according to the word family. The player who places the third card on a stack takes the cards.
A game with cards and a shared board. Players say each word aloud and place it on the right spot according to the word family. The player who places the third card on a stack takes the cards.
A game with cards and a shared board. Players say each word aloud and place it on the right spot according to the word family. The player who places the third card on a stack takes the cards.
A game with cards and a shared board. Players say each word aloud and place it on the right spot according to the word family. The player who places the third card on a stack takes the cards.
The goal of this game is to read 'bossy e' words (words where the e on the end makes the vowel in the middle have a long sound - in this case 'i' as in time).
A game with cards and a shared board. Players say each word aloud and place it on the right spot according to the word family. The player who places the third card on a stack takes the cards.
The goal of this game is to read 'ing', 'ang' and 'ung' words.
A game with cards and a shared board. Players say each word aloud and place it on the right spot according to the word family. The player who places the third card on a stack takes the cards.
an ap at in ip it op ot ug ub
Play these games like the old card game: Happy Families.
The goal is to make as many complete word families as you can. The lesson aim is to see and read lots of letters strings and identify them as word families to aid spelling and reading.
The goal is to make as many complete word families as you can. The lesson aim is to see and read lots of letters strings and identify them as word families to aid spelling and reading.
The goal is to make as many complete word families as you can. The lesson aim is to see and read lots of letters strings and identify them as word families to aid spelling and reading.
The goal is to make as many complete word families as you can. The lesson aim is to see and read lots of letters strings and identify them as word families to aid spelling and reading.
Ghost! and Wipe Out!
(these are a very simple, fast games)
Card games with lots of repetition of the focus words.
Most sets have 36 words and 12 special cards. Players keep drawing cards and reading the words aloud until they draw a Ghost! or Wipe Out! card. Then play moves to the next player.
