A word family is a group of words that end the same way: cat, hat and bat all end in -at. Once a child can read one of them, the rest are only a new first sound away. That is why word families are one of the first steps from sounding out letters to reading whole words.

Every box on these worksheets shows one ending in a frame — -at, -og, -un — and six short words below it. Three or four of them belong to the family; the others look alike on purpose, with the same vowel (cap, can) or the same last letter (net, pet), so the child has to read to the end of each word before circling it. All the words have three letters and a short vowel, and every word on the list is one a five-year-old knows or can be told in a sentence.

Start with Families set to "Short a only" (-at, -an, -ap), then move to mixed vowels and all ten families. Click any box to switch it to another family, lock the boxes you like, and press New sheet for the rest. The answer key prints on a second page only when you ask for it. Nothing to sign up for.

12 ready-to-print sheets

• Word families · Short a · 4 questions
• Word families · Short a · 6 questions
• Word families · Short a · 4 questions · set 2
• Word families · Short a · 6 questions · set 2
• Word families · Mixed vowels · 4 questions
• Word families · Mixed vowels · 6 questions
• Word families · Mixed vowels · 4 questions · set 2
• Word families · Mixed vowels · 6 questions · set 2
• Word families · All 10 families · 4 questions
• Word families · All 10 families · 6 questions
• Word families · All 10 families · 4 questions · set 2
• Word families · All 10 families · 6 questions · set 2