Creative Word Families, Reading, and Crafting

This design is for 'ell', "WELL"

How about combining reading and crafting? Pick the word families you would like to work on and pull out some crayons, markers, scissors, pencils and paper to design a fun way for your children to discover their word families. For example; the family for 'at':

1. Have your children design 'cat' on a piece of paper. They could draw a cat on a piece of paper, color it, cut it out or work from there. They can even design their cat to be in its very own house.

2. Have your children draw, color, and cut out all the items that a cat loves or needs.

3. Once they have designed their cats room and possessions, write the word families on each of the items. For example with 'at' and 'cat' the word families are; 'bat, hat, mat, flat, gnat, rat, that, etc.'

4. Put them in a specially designed file folder listing the words on the front to have for your child's word studies later down the road.  

Follow the above procedure for the families you choose. A few other samples would be, the family for 'oat', design a boat. The family for 'ig', can begin with a 'pig. The family for 'eep', just begin with a 'sheep', and so on. This project will work well, inspire creativity, and save you money. It helps with a hands on experience and brings reading to a creative level. You could also design your own word pictures with word families to hang on your walls for supportive studies with your folders.

Hope you are enjoying teaching your children to read.
"raising faith-filled kids"
Pastor Kim