Terri Thompson

We’re still working on reviewing word families at home.

In order to review and have a little fun at the same time, I made this simple game for Miss 1st.

The best part about this game is that it’s so flexible. You can do this for any word family or do as we did and review several word families at once.

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To Make the Game:

Using one or more index cards, write the word families you want to review, for example “ap” or “ill.” I often use this list of word families from EnchantedLearning.com for reference.

Next, take a pile of index cards and write the beginning letters. I used single letters (almost all the consonants) and letter blends (sh, sl, th, etc.)

Again, use a word family list to help you decide on the letters to use. You will want to have some cards with letters that will not make a word. Ex: “th” plus “ap” is not a word!

To Play the Game: 

Deal each person 3  beginning letter cards.

Lay down a word family card (ex: “ap”). Lay the extra beginning letter cards face down in a pile above your word family card.

The first player looks at her beginning letter cards to see if she can make a word. If she can, lay that card in front of the word family card. If not, she needs to discard (face up) a card that does not work and draw a new card. She will continue drawing and discarding until she finds a letter that makes a word.

Each play in turn tries to make a new word from the word family card.

At the beginning of each turn, the player will draw a card from extra pile. Each player should have 3 cards at the beginning of his turn.

Continue playing until there are no more beginning letter cards.

Note: Not all beginning letter cards will work for each word family. I wanted to add an additional challenge to the game by having Miss 1st determine if her combinations were a real word or not. Your child may pass by an combination that is an actual word, but not one they are familiar with. That’s okay. Let it pass if it’s an uncommon word or use the time to teach your child a new word. No matter what, have fun. Use the game as a fun way to sneak in a little extra review time!

Let me know if you play this game and if you like it!