My daughter is in kindergarten. Slowly but surely, she is learning how to read. Blends, sight words and word families are all things that she is practicing. In order to support her education, I have been thinking up some word family activities. Since she already has homework, I want to make sure any extra learning she does after school is fun. Here are four word family activities for kindergarten.
Vroom Vroom! Car Word Families
My kids both love the small matchbox cars. We have plenty around the house. To play this game, write a word family ending on one car. You can write the letters on a piece of stiff paper and then tape it to the top of the car. Then, put several different consonants on four to five other cars. Have your child pull up several cars to the first and read the words.
Pizza Word Family Sort
Have your child draw a pizza with four slices. You can take a paper plate and divide it into fourths for them. On each slice, you can write a word family ending. For instance, -at, -an, -ig, -et are a few good ones. Next, write at least three words from each word family on a pizza topping. Pepperoni, mushrooms and ham are easy ones to write words on. However, your child should pick his or her favorite toppings. Finally, have your child place or glue the toppings onto the correct pizza slice.
Word Family Toss
At the beginning of the school year, my daughter was sick. She missed four days of school. Towards the end of her illness, we played letter sound catch. For this, we threw a big ball back and forth, going through the alphabet systematically. We would say “A” and then the letter sound. Then, B and so on. After mastering this game, you can go onto word family catch. You take several small balls or hacky sacks and write words on each. Think of several words in a word family and write each on a piece of fabric tape. Attach the words to a ball. Then, choose one word (a sight word or other familiar word) that doesn’t belong in the word family. The child can pick up the balls, say each word and throw it to another person. One ball should be left on the ground. The person who catches the balls can check to make sure all the words belong in the same word family.
Feed the Word Family “Monsters”
Take several (at least three) empty boxes like taco shell or kleenex boxes. Then, cover each with construction paper. If the box doesn’t already have an opening in the front cut out a mouth and make jagged teeth. Add eyes and any other scary face features. Next, write a word family on a sticky note and attach it on top of each monster. Then, give your child about five words (written on paper food) each from each word family. The object of the game is for the child to feed the monster the correct words. Have your child read the word as he or she feeds each one to the monsters. You can repeat this daily with different word families.
If you need a reminder on word families, click here for a list.
More from Melissa:
Fun Kids’ Crafts to Reinforce the Alphabet
Fight Summer Learning Loss with These Educational Activities
Teaching Your Toddler ABCs and 123s
