Simple and Effective Literacy Activities: WORD FAMILY DICTIONARY

This post is part of a series of FREE Simple and Effective Literacy Activities. To read more about my personal philosophy on how to help teach a love of all things literacy, head here.

WHAT IS A WORD FAMILY DICTIONARY?

A Word Family Dictionary is a simple way to identify, record and reference a list of Word Families. Word Families are groups of words that have a common pattern or groups of letters with the same sound. The -“ain” Word Family would include brain, drain, refrain, stain, pain and more. Word Families will not only have the same ending sound, but that ending sound will be made up of the same letters. Words that would rhyme with the “ain” Word Family but would not fit in that family would include plane and feign.

{Please note: this literacy activity does not apply to the etymology version of word families.}

WHY IS A WORD FAMILY DICTIONARY EFFECTIVE AS A LITERACY ACTIVITY?

Creating a Word Family Dictionary is an effective literacy activity because it allows students to work on several important skills including:

Reading
Writing
Decoding
Recognizing same letter groups
Identifying rhyming sounds
Understanding that rhyming sounds can be made up of different letter groups

And, when it is all put together, a student can read and reference their handy dandy word dictionary time and time again.

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM A WORD FAMILY DICTIONARY?

Because of the focus on patterns, early and emergent readers and writers can benefit the most from a Word Family Dictionary.

HOW SIMPLE IS IT TO MAKE A WORD FAMILY DICTIONARY?

Very simple! All your student will need is this free PRINTABLE, a pencil, a pair of scissors and a stapler. That’s it!

Once you have those items gathered, simply follow these directions {You can find these directions in the WORD FAMILY DICTIONARY PRINTABLE too, of course.}

In no particular order, possible Word Families include:

bit, fit, sit, knit, pit, lit, wit
pain, gain, brain, stain, rain, drain, main, chain
cat, bat, rat, hat, mat, sat, drat, fat, vat, gnat, pat
loss, moss, boss, cross, floss, toss
but, cut, nut, jut, gut, rut
wish, fish, dish
drink, sink, fink, wink, pink
blue, glue, sue, rue, hue, cue, clue, due
fast, mast, past, last
band, hand, stand, land
joke, choke, woke, broke, bloke, stoke
west, best, quest, test, zest, pest, chest, nest, vest, rest, guest
fall, mall, stall, pall, call, hall, ball
hill, pill, still, fill, will, shill, spill, bill, kill, quill, till, gill, grill, drill, dill, krill, thrill
blew, stew, few, grew, yew, dew, crew, pew
bank, sank, stank, lank, drank, dank, crank, prank
bar, car, star, far, jar, gar, czar, par
ilk, milk, silk
light, bright, blight, tight, sight, fight, flight, night, knight, might
white, bite, site, quite, kite
mist, list, fist

CAN THIS WORD FAMILY DICTIONARY BE MODIFIED?

Of course! To make it a wee bit more challenging, instead of giving your student a target word, just provide the target ending {provide “-it” as opposed to “sit”.} Also, to make it more true to a dictionary, ask your student to write the different “members” in each “family” in alphabetical order. Another good way to extend this activity is to continue to add to Word Family Dictionary as your student increases his/her knowledge of Word Families.