Word families are groups of words that share the same ending pattern, such as "hat, "mat", and "cat".  Children need to learn to recognize the "chunks" that make up many different word patterns.  For example, in the words "shake", "take"", and "make, kids learn to recognize the "ake" as a whole chunk, instead of needing to sound out the letters individually. 

When children begin to read, they must sound out every letter.  This is slow and breaks the flow of the words, making it hard to figure out the meaning.  When learning families of words, children are able to read familiar patterns of letters quickly and fluently.

When kids progress past these simple words, the patterns or chunks, that they learn now will continue to help them decipher longer words.  Word family patterns help children's spelling.  They are able to recognize spelling patterns and apply these to other words of the same family.

BELOW IS A WESITE YOU CAN USE TO HELP PRACTICE WORD FAMILIES!