We tried out a fun new word families reading activity this week, and I can’t wait to share it with you. My pre-schooler absolutely loved this one because it involved spoons and a bit of fine motor fun in addition to the reading. We’ve had quite a bit of practice reading CVC words, but this was his first time trying to sort them into word families.
Word families are groups of words that share a similar pattern or feature. It’s important to be able to recognize like words because it helps children decode words faster and improve their reading speed. We worked with CVC words for this activity, but you could also use digraph word families, blends, and so many more. By the end he was recognizing the rhymes and starting to pair the correct words together.
This activity was very simple. I had some adorable spoons and cups that were perfect learning tools. I loved the bright colors because they make me smile and they bring a bit of extra fun to the activity. You could just as easily use white or clear though if that is what you have on hand. I took 5 cups, flipped them upside down, and wrote a word family sound on each one. I used the two letter endings to common CVC words. Then I wrote words from that word family on the head of several spoons.
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Next I used a knife to poke slits in the cup bottoms that were facing up, and that was it. We were ready to go.
My son picked up each spoon, one at a time, and read the words. Then he got to slide the handle of that spoon into a slit on the matching cup. It was so much fun!! I think the older girls were a bit envious of his schoolwork because he was having such a great time. The best part is that I can keep all of the materials and use them again. The cups stack easily, and the spoons go right in a zip lock bag. This one was a total keeper.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy this word families reading activity, and have a bit of fun learning something today.
This looks like so much fun! I love it when fine motor tasks can be included with reading.
Yeah, my son was all over this one. It was a total game. The reading was just a bonus. 😉
This is so cute and so easy to make!!! Adding this to my to do list 🙂
I love this! I have all of the materials in the house…thanks!
WOW! Love these ideas, word families are sometimes challenging for kids! So I’ll definitely use these teaching ideas!
Will this be suitable for big numbers of students because am afraid it will turn to one to one teaching?
It would probably work best in small literacy center groups or one on one, but there are ways you could make it work for the entire class. One good option might be to fill small tubs with beans or rice, label the tubs with word families, and then have the tubs sitting out around a large table or desk. Then give each of the children a pile of word spoons, and have them stand them in the rice of the correct tub.
Really cute idea. I love that you are mixing the visual with the tactile.
Thank you! It’s such a fun way to learn, particularly with the little ones. Enjoy! 🙂
What a clever idea for word family match game! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! I’m glad yo enjoyed it. We sure had fun.
very nice ideas for word family game . I love them very much.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for sharing this. It is such a great idea to occupy my kid to learn while having fun.
This really is a fun one. I hope your child loves it!