Play the "Word Families" Game

Welcome back to Read Not Guess. Today is a review day. We’ll practice blending the sounds we learned this week and then suggest a game to play to help your child master these sounds.

Let’s get started.

Word Practice

First, we’re going to work on “blending” letter sounds into words. Your child can start slowly by saying each sound individually, but each time, they should try to say it just a bit faster.

Ask your child to say the correct sounds as they point to the letters:

m o p m o p mop

And:

l i d l id lid By the end, make sure your child is reading the word "lid" without any extra sounds at the end. (Ask them to keep blending the sounds faster if they’re still reading it as "luh-ih-duh").

Let's do a few more:

h u m h um hum And:

m e n m e n men

And:

c u t c u t cut A couple more:

p o t p ot pot And:

s p o t s pot spot Sound Addition

It’s important for kids to hear how words change when you add, subtract, or change a letter. It helps them hear the individual sounds in words and understand that different sounds convey a different meaning.

Read your child the questions and see if they can come up with the answers:

Question: What word do you make when you add the “mmm” and the “at” sounds?

Answer: mmm + at = mat

Question: What word do you make when you add the “sss” and the “un” sounds?

Answer: sss + un = sun

Question: What word do you make when you add the “Nnn” and the “ap” sounds?

Answer: n + ap = nap

Now try some harder ones.

Question: What word do you make when you add the “Sss” and the “ink” sounds?

Answer: sss + ink = sink

Question: What word do you make when you add “St” and "ink” sounds together?

Answer: st + ink = stink

Question: What word do you make when you add “Dr” and "ink” sounds together?

Answer: dr + ink = drink

If your child struggled with any of the words, go back and have them do it again. Repeated practice is good for kids.

For a harder challenge, swap roles. Have your child give you a word to guess based on a combination of sounds. Made-up words are fine! What's important here is for your child to hear the individual sounds and practice combining them together.

Weekend Game: Word Families

This one takes a bit of set up. You'll need a sheet of paper, a pen or pencil, and four cups or bowls (any will do).

To get started, fold a piece of paper into 16 squares (see here if you want to see how it's done). Each row is going to represent one word "family." Today, we're going to work with the an, in, at, and ip families.

Use your pen or pencil to write the name of one family in each row. Then fill out the squares with more words that belong in that family. I've given you words to use to fill up your page. It should look sort of like this:

ut cut nut hut ot hot pot lot en hen pen ten ap map tap gap

Now cut up the paper into the 16 squares.

Put the family names in front of the cups (or tape them on).

Mix up all the rest of the words.

Tell your child that several word families went to a park. They got mixed up, and it's your child's job to get them back in the right home (the cups or bowls).

As they pick up a new slip of paper, ask them to read the word out loud before they put it into the correct family's cup.

After you play the game once, you can repeat it again, add or change the words, or try adding other word families.

That’s it for this week. We’ll see you next time.