We have begun our study of word families. As early readers begin to understand the patterns and relationships in words, their reading and spelling powers greatly expand. It is not necessary to memorize each word separately, but instead, to look for the similarities between words. How are these words alike and how are they different? This is a very valuable skill as young children learn to decode our written language. It is an important part of our word study. The student are taught to apply phonics to reading and spelling many words.
We have started with words that rhyme with "at." Emphasis is being placed on the following words: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat and sat. We will also introduce the challenge words, "that" and "chat." All the words in the "at" family will be recorded in our new Word Families on Tuesday. Using the keyboard on a computer template, the children will select four of these words to practice typing, and then they will draw pictures to match. We will also make up silly sentences using at least two "at" words, such as, "The rat sat in the hat."
Later, will will study other word families with the short sound of "a." These will include "an," "am," "ag," "ad," "ap," "and," and "ack," For the rest of the school year, a new word family will be introduced at least once a week, for a total of over 25 word families. This skill will be reviewed in first grade and and then expanded on to include many words. What a valuable tool this is!
