I’m so excited to share these helpful word family printables for all 5 short vowels with you! There are multiple benefits to focusing on word family words with young readers. We know how important it is that kindergarten students have a strong foundation when it comes to literacy. Word family words are one way to build the strong foundation. The groups of words included in my word family printables include short vowel word families. Learning short vowels is a huge part of developing young readers. The word family printables include different activities to help build early reading skills. Students will focus on short vowel word families by applying their knowledge of letter sounds to isolated words and decodable sentences. The word family worksheets that are included in these word family printables also include short decodable stories. Kindergarten students and first grade students will also read common sight words and word family words when completing these word family printables. If you’re looking for a way to word on building early literacy skills with word families, keep reading!
Short Vowel Word Families Worksheets
These printable worksheets with a focus on short vowels in CVC words work well in small groups, for intervention groups, in literacy centers, or even to send home for additional fluency practice. I created these short vowel word families worksheets to give students practice reading words in the same word family as a way to build their fluency and decoding skills. If you have students who know their letter names and sounds, but struggle to apply that knowledge when decoding words…you’re going to want to check these out!
Why focus on word families?
- With the repeated rime in word family words, readers have an easier time decoding the words (when given multiple words from the same word family in a row) because they just have to change one sound each time.
- Another feature of working on word families since they’re easier for students to decode- they are great for building confidence in early readers!
Want to making learning fun for your new readers in Kindergarten or 1st Grade?
You can easily engage your students with these word family CVC worksheets! The word strips page for all the short vowel word families includes word family houses. At the beginning of each strip there is a picture of a child and a house at the end because students are “Walking with Word Families”. You can encourage readers to “walk down the sidewalk to their friend’s house by reading the words along the way.” I like to use little props that are little people or characters to up engagement!
Here is another thing you can do to up engagement using these word family printables. For the words and sentences pages, you can leave the word and sentence pages as a regular whole page, or you can cut them into strips and put on a key ring for simple fluency practice at the start of small groups or in a center. These a great addition to a literacy center. Students can grab one of the key rings and sit down to read through the word family words and sentences. This is a great way to work on fluency!
Improve Decoding and Fluency Skills with Word Family Printables
These fun activities are effective ways to help students improve their decoding and fluency skills. When students see the repeated common pattern in multiple words on a page, they can more quickly read each word. Their brain doesn’t have to start all over again with each word, but can rather say a new beginning sound and then the familiar word family. As they put together each word, they realize the words rhyme. So as they apply their decoding skills to each word family word, they’re seeing a pattern that they now recognize. This makes each word easier to read, helping to build their fluent reading of CVC words.
It’s also important to note that these word family worksheets follow a logical fluency progression. After students work on the isolated words, they’ll move on to the sentences which is the next logical step in the progression for fluency success. The sentences are then followed by a worksheet that puts all the ideas together on one page with the addition of a decodable word family story that also has comprehension questions. So not only will students be working on decoding, fluency, but they will also work on comprehension, as well. This means you’re hitting three major parts of learning to read in just a few minutes. Another thing to note- students will also work on sight word identification as they read each sentence and word family story. These word families printables give you a full picture of how the reader is progressing in their reading skills.
You may be wondering where it would be best to fit these word family printables into your day. I suggest using these word family printables that focus on each short vowel CVC word pattern in:
- small groups
- literacy centers
- independent fluency practice
- with a parent helper
- for intervention groups
- to send home for additional fluency practice
You may also be curious which common patterns are included in these word family printables. The word patterns included in this short vowel word families bundle are:
- Short a: -ab, -ad, -ag, -am, -an, -ap, -at
- Short o: -ob, -og, -ot, -op
- Short I: -id, -ig, -im, -in, -ip, -it
- Short u: -ub, -ug, -um, -un
- Short e: -ed, -en, -et
With all these word families included in the bundle, there are a good variety of words for your students to focus on. You’ll be able to easily differentiate the set you use with each small group to meet their specific needs. Each word family unit comes with its own set of six pages. The first page includes the isolated words. Students will read each word on the line as they focus on decoding and fluency. The second page includes the decodable sentences. Students will read each sentence to work on decoding in context. The next four pages are the word family worksheets where students will read a set of words, a sentence, and short passage. They will then answer the comprehension questions that follows the word family stories. Answer keys are included for the comprehension questions that go with each word family story.
Whether you’re focusing on short a word work activities, or any other short vowel word families, these word family worksheets can help engage you readers! Click here to check out the short vowel word family printables bundle!
Free Word Family Printables
If you want to get an idea of how your students do with these word family printables, I’ve got a free download for you. Click here to download the freebie for -at word family words. These sample pages of free -at word family printable activities will give you an idea of what is included in the bundle of short vowel word family printables.
You may also be looking for more ideas to use with your young readers to help them improve their deocding skills with short vowel sounds. If you’d like more short vowel ideas to use with your students, check out 5 Ideas for Practicing Short Vowels!
