Unit 1 — -at, -an, -ap
Short a. The first families anyone teaches.
Kindergarten to second grade
Word families
A word family is an ending a group of words share — the -at in cat, hat, mat and flat. Learn the ending once and the whole group arrives with it, which is why families are taught before rules.
Kindergarten to second grade 80 words 8 units
Take a unit
Unit 2 — -ack, -and, -ag
Short a with a consonant pair at the end.
Unit 3 — -ed, -en, -ell
Short e. Keep these well away from the short i families.
Unit 4 — -ig, -in, -ip
Short i. Taught weeks after short e, on purpose.
Unit 5 — -op, -ot, -ock
Short o.
Unit 6 — -ug, -un, -uck
Short u, the last of the short vowels.
Unit 7 — -ain, -ake
Long a, two spellings.
Unit 8 — -ight, -ing
Four letters for two sounds, and the commonest ending in English.
The words
WordSentence read after it
cat
The cat slept on the windowsill.
hat
He wore a wool hat in the snow.
flat
Her jumper was flat grey, with no pattern.
chat
We had a chat in the kitchen.
man
A man asked for directions.
plan
We made a plan for the party.
than
My bag is heavier than yours.
map
Find our town on the map.
clap
Clap twice when the music stops.
snap
The twig will snap if you bend it.
Unit 2
back
Put the chair back where you found it.
black
The kitten is black with white paws.
track
A track led down to the river.
hand
Raise your hand before you speak.
stand
Please stand by the window.
grand
It was a grand old house.
bag
My bag is full of books.
flag
The flag flapped in the wind.
drag
Do not drag the chair across the floor.
snack
He had a snack before tea.
Unit 3
bed
Make your bed before school.
sled
We pulled the sled up the hill.
shed
The tools are in the shed.
ten
Count to ten and open your eyes.
then
Wash your hands, then sit down.
when
When does the show start?
bell
The bell rings at three.
spell
Can you spell your address?
smell
There was a smell of paint.
shell
She found a shell on the beach.
Unit 4
big
That is a big red truck.
twig
A twig snapped under his foot.
swing
The swing hung from an old tree.
pin
A pin held the paper to the board.
thin
Slice the bread very thin.
begin
We begin rehearsals on Monday.
lip
She bit her lip and kept quiet.
ship
The ship sailed at dawn.
drip
The tap has begun to drip.
skip
Do not skip the last question.
Unit 5
top
Write the date at the top.
stop
Stop at the crossing.
drop
Do not drop the plate.
hot
The pan is still hot.
spot
There was a spot of ink on the page.
forgot
I forgot my coat.
rock
A rock blocked the path.
clock
The clock stopped at noon.
knock
Knock before you go in.
shock
The news came as a shock.
Unit 6
bug
A tiny bug crawled up the wall.
plug
Pull the plug out of the wall.
shrug
He gave a shrug and walked off.
run
I can run all the way home.
sun
The sun came out after lunch.
begun
The film had already begun.
duck
A duck swam across the pond.
stuck
The window is stuck.
truck
A truck blocked the lane.
luck
With any luck it will hold.
Unit 7
rain
The rain soaked my shoes.
train
The train pulled into the station.
explain
Please explain that again.
chain
The chain came off his bicycle.
cake
We shared the cake at break.
shake
Shake the bottle before you pour.
mistake
Everyone makes a spelling mistake sometimes.
awake
He was awake at four.
brake
The brake on the bicycle is loose.
snake
A snake crossed the path.
Unit 8
night
The owl hunts at night.
light
Turn on the light in the hall.
bright
The kitchen is bright in the morning.
fright
The noise gave me a fright.
flight
Our flight leaves at six.
king
The king lived in that castle.
bring
Bring your library book tomorrow.
spring
The daffodils come up in spring.
thing
The strangest thing happened today.
string
Tie it with string.
Sheets you can print
Tick what you need. The packet prints in this order, one sheet per page, with nothing else on the paper.
Why families come before rules
A rule asks a child to hold an abstraction — the e on the end changes the vowel before it — and then apply that abstraction while writing, which is already hard enough. A family asks only that they notice two words end the same way. That is available a year earlier, and it is why a five-year-old who can explain nothing whatever about vowels can still write flat correctly the first time they meet it.
The return on a family is unusually good. Ten minutes on -at gives a child twenty words rather than ten, because the ones you did not teach come free. That transfer is the entire point, and it disappears the moment a list mixes cat in with because.
The one trap
Do not teach two families with similar vowels in the same week. The -en and -in families together will reliably produce a child who writes both at random for a month, because short e and short i are close in most accents and nearly identical before an n. A child writing pin for pen is not being careless; they are hearing what you said.
Separate them by several weeks, secure each one on its own, and only then contrast them deliberately. The contrast is worth doing — a child who can tell you which of pen and pin has the wider mouth has understood something real — but it is worth doing last rather than first.
Sorting is the activity, not a worksheet
The reason families are usually taught with a sort — words on cards, columns on a table — is that sorting forces the child to look at the ending, which is the thing being learnt. Reading the same words in a list lets them recognise each word whole and learn nothing about the pattern.
A wrong card is worth leaving where it lands for a moment. A child who has put twig under -at and is asked to read the column back will usually fix it themselves, and the self-correction is worth considerably more than being told.
When families stop being the right tool
Around the point where words get longer than one syllable, the family stops paying. Station and nation share an ending, but the useful generalisation there is the -tion suffix rather than a rhyme, and a child ready for that is ready for rules.
Families remain a good re-entry point for an older child who is behind, though, precisely because nothing about them feels babyish. A nine-year-old who cannot spell reliably can do a -ight sort without any sense of being handed infant work.
Common questions
What age are word families for?
Kindergarten to second grade for the short vowels, into third for the longer endings. They also suit an older child who is behind, because nothing about them feels babyish.
Is this the same as rhyming?
Close, but not the same, and the difference matters when spelling. Said rhymes with bed and belongs to neither family. Families are about the letters; rhyme is about the sound.
How many families at once?
Two or three. More than four and a sort stops being a sort and becomes a filing exercise.
Can I print it as a cut-and-sort?
Yes — every unit prints as a word list you can cut into cards, and the printables page has the rest of the sheets.