Word Families

Well, the time in my kindergarten class has come!  We know all our letter. We know all our sounds.  We've learned the digraphs /ch/, /sh/, /th/ and /wh/.  We made it!  It's time for word families!  Let me pull out the plethora of teaching materials that my district provides for me to teach word families.  Oh, wait- there's nothing! [Said in a sarcastic tone] The reading series we've adopted barely makes it through the letters and sounds in the entire year.   Well, let me purchase my own materials from teaching stores, search for some great things on TpT (and purchase them with district purchase order my own money), and make some things that are just right for my classroom.  Okay, my rant is over!  We begin with short a word families and progress from there.  Here's our sequence of word families for 3rd quarter.  I would love to hear the sequence others use to introduce word families and where they fall in sequence of skills.

At my thinking map station the week we come back, I have a word sort that I've created.  I received, through some thinking map training I went to once, a set of large (about poster board size) laminated thinking maps.  I am going to use the tree map one for this activity, but you could use the activity in a pocket chart just as easily.  There is also a recording sheet for the students to re-create the thinking map themselves. Check out the pictures below to see if it's something you could use and then click here to get the freebie.  I have to give a big shout out the Charlotte's Clips for providing most of these amazing graphics.  Love her stuff!