Word Families, sometimes called phonograms or chunks, help emergent readers begin to understand our often complicated English language by providing predictable patterns within words.  When learning to read, patterns are important.  As children begin to recognize word patterns, sounding out words becomes easier.

Example (-all Word Family) - ball, call, fall, hall, mall, tall, wall

The following word families will be important to learn this year in Kindergarten.  Please help your children recognize the following while reading stories together......


Short a

(-at) Family: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, flat, chat

(-ap) Family: cap, gap, lap, map, nap, sap, tap, zap, clap

(-an) Family: ban, can, fan, man, pan, ran, tan, van, plan

(-ad) Family: bad, dad, had, lad, mad, pad, sad, glad

(-ag) Family: bag, gag, rag, sag, tag, wag, zag, flag, drag

(-am) Family: dam, ham, jam, ram, yam, clam, swam


Short o

(-op) Family: cop, hop, mop, pop, top, drop, flop, stop

(-ot) Family: cot, dot, got, hot, jot, lot, not, pot, rot, tot, plot

(-og/ob) Family: dog, hog, fog, jog, log, clog, frog, cob, job, sob


Short e

(-et) Family: bet, get, jet, let, met, net, pet, set, vet, wet

(-ed) Family: bed, fed, led, med, red, wed, shed, sled

(-en) Family: den, hen, men, pen, ten, yen, when


Short u

(-ug) Family: bug, dug, hug, jug, lug, mug, rug, tug, slug

(-un) Family: bun, fun, nun, run, sun, shun, spun, stun

(-ut) Family: but, cut, gut, hut, jut, nut, rut, shut


Short i

(-it) Family: bit, fit, hit, kit, lit, pit, sit, knit, skit, split

(-ip) Family: dip, hip, lip, nip, rip, sip, tip, zip, chip, ship, slip

(-in) Family: bin, fin, kin, pin, sin, tin, win, chin, shin

(-ig) Family: big, dig, fig, gig, jig, pig, rig, wig