Word Families

"What is all of this, Koko?" "I'm organizing my collections!" "But, your categories don't make sense." "Oh, I organize them based on their Word Families." You probably know a lot about families, a group of people who take care of each other. But, did you know that there are word families? Sometimes we group words together into categories and call them families when they have similar parts. We can use what we know about the similar parts of words to read or spell them. Like this word, C A T where we can hear all of the sounds. This word is cat, which belongs to the /at/ family. Because we know how to read and say cat, it can help us with the following word that also ends with the sound /at/; B A T which spells bat! Let's help Pip figure out each of Koko's categories. Can you tell what the first object is? It's spelled S H E L L. This word is shell, and will help us to figure out the other words in the /el/ family. Like the following word, B E L L. Can you tell what this object is called? We know that because it is part of the /el/ family, it will also end with the sound /el/. Now, we can use what we know about letter sounds to figure out the first sound. What sound does the letter B make? /b/! So, if we put the /b/ sound in front of the sound /el/ we get the word, bell! Koko's next category has two things in it. The first object is spelled B U G, and you can hear all of the sounds in this word. This word is bug, and it is part of the /ug/ family. But, what about the following item in her category? We know that because it is part of the /ug/ family that it will end in the same sound, and we can sound out the first letter to figure out this word. The first letter is , which makes the /M/ sound. That means when we put it together with the sound /ug/, we get the word, mug! Let's review. Today we learned about word families, a way to group words together. We learned about how they help us to read and spell unfamiliar words, and how to use the final sound to figure out new words. Now, I wonder if Koko has another category? "Hey, why is there a picture of me in this group?" "Oh, that's my /ip/ family!"