Browse

Word Family Worksheets

17 free PDFsUS Letter or A4No login

A page for each of 17 short-vowel word families: read the family, trace and write three words, then make new words with letter boxes.

Download the word families worksheets

Print at 100% (actual size) for the cleanest tracing lines.

About these word families worksheets

A word family is a group of words that share the same ending, like cat, hat and mat in the -at family. Once a child can read the ending, they only have to change the first sound to read a new word, which makes word families a quick way to build a bank of words they can read and spell.

There is one page for each of these families: -at, -an, -ap, -ag, -ad, -en, -et, -ed, -ig, -it, -in, -ip, -ot, -op, -og, -ug, -un. Each page starts with the whole family to read, with the ending in bold. Children trace three of the words, write them with less help each time, and then make their own words by writing a first letter in front of the dotted ending.

Standards

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.DSpell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.BAssociate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.1.APrint many upper- and lowercase letters.

How to use them

  1. Read the family words together and point to the shared ending. Ask, “What part is the same? What part changes?”
  2. On the tracing rows, the first word is dotted, the next has only starting dots, and the last space is for writing alone.
  3. For the make-a-word boxes, offer the letters printed above them, or let your child try any letter and decide if the word is real.
  4. Do one family per day or two, and come back to earlier families for a quick read-through.

Teaching tips

  • Teach one vowel's families together (-at, -an, -ap, -ag, -ad) before moving to the next vowel.
  • Families whose words have tails (-ag, -ig, -og, -ug, -ap, -ip, -op) use the extra line below the baseline. Show your child where g and p hang down.
  • Make a family wall or a flip book: write the ending on a strip and the first letters on cards that slide past it.
  • If a child reads hat as “h-at” but can't blend, cover the ending, say the first sound, then uncover it and slide the two together.

Questions teachers and parents ask

Which word families should we teach first?

Short a families such as -at, -an and -ap are a good start because they have many common words. Then move on to short i, short o, short u and short e families.

How many words are in each family?

Each page shows four to six real words for the family, chosen to be clean, familiar words a kindergartner can decode.

Are these word family worksheets free?

Yes. Every page is a free PDF with no sign-up, in US Letter and A4.