Teaching about word families is an important part of teaching students to read and spell. Word families help them learn that they can use the same letter combinations to decode and spell words. Word families also help to reinforce rhyming skills and increase reading fluency. Providing students with lots of opportunities to work with word families is key. But how to get that practice? That’s what we’re tackling today! These easy word family interactive notebook activities are the perfect addition to your phonics lessons.
What is an Interactive Notebook?
So what exactly is an interactive notebook? Well, if you haven’t used them in your classroom yet, let me explain a bit! Interactive notebooks are notebooks where students keep all their learning materials related to a specific subject matter, skill, or topic.
They can be year-long notebooks or focused on one unit. In my classroom, we generally use composition notebooks to house our interactive notebooks for larger topics. For individual topics, we use a file folder and complete activities in more of a lapbook format.
Students will put all sorts of information in these books. I like to include mini anchor charts that they can refer back to as well as interactive practice activities. Many of the activities that find their way into our interactive notebooks include cutting, folding, and pasting.
This is a great way to weave in some fine motor skills too. This is a creative and engaging way for students to have all the information they need at their fingertips. And. . . all you really need to start is a simple notebook!
Teaching Word Families with Interactive Notebooks
Teaching things like word families is a big deal because this is the basis for helping students learn to read. When I think about ways to introduce new concepts, especially ones so crucial, I want to do it in a way that is not only engaging and efficient but loads of fun too. Word Family Interactive Notebooks fit the bill!
The students really love the activities, and at the end of it all, students will have a notebook that will be packed with CVC words and word family knowledge. These activities can easily be used in different parts of your school day as well. In the beginning, I recommend tackling these activities in small groups or as a whole group so that you can model how to complete them. Once students get the hang of it, though, these make great centers and independent learning activities. How awesome would it be to have a no-brainer way to practice phonics word families each week?!
The best part, though? As you build and learn new phonics skills, you can keep adding to your notebooks. Week after week, more phonics skills get added, creating an in-depth record of what’s been covered in your classroom. Let’s take a closer look at some of my favorite word family interactive notebook activities.
1. Roll & Graph Word Families
If there is a surefire way to get students excited about learning, it is to give them fun activities that make it seem like they are playing a game! That is just what this Roll & Graph activity provides.
All you have to do to prep this is cut out the graph page and glue it to their notebook. Then cut out the dice template and fold it into the dice shape (sometimes, they need a little guidance with this part). Once that is done, your students are ready to go!
Students will simply roll the dice and write the word they get into the correct slot on their graph. They will continue rolling, writing, and graphing until one of the word families reaches the top.
This is a repetitive activity that has them reading and writing out each word family multiple times so they get plenty of practice!
2. Color Word Family Pictures
I don’t know about you, but my students love to get creative and they love to color! Any time I can incorporate some coloring or art into my lessons, I am all for it because students truly love it. It feels fun and less daunting to them!
That is why I love this Color the Word Family picture activity. It combines learning word families with coloring, and it is really simple to add to the interactive notebook.
Everything students need for this activity is on one sheet, which makes it especially easy to add to the notebook. Students will determine the target word family sound and then find and color all of the pictures with that sound.
Students will have lots of pictures to choose from, some with the word family sound, and some that do not have it. They must determine the right pictures to color. This is a great activity for working on those segmenting and phonemic awareness skills.
3. Spin, Read, Write Word Families
Another fun activity to help teach word families is spin, read, and write word families. This gives students the chance to practice reading and writing the target word family words. It provides lots of practice and really helps students grow their reading fluency.
To get started, students will cut and glue the activity sheet into their notebooks. Then they will use a pencil and paper clip to make a spinner and complete the activity.
It’s a great activity to work on independently, but also fun for partners too! And that paper clip spinner is a great exercise in hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
This just might be one of the favorite student activities!
4. Word Family Sliders
This activity is a great way to help students make connections with how word families work. It’s a great way to reinforce those important rhyming skills too.
The slider is a strip of paper that students will cut out that contains a word family like -at or -ad. Another strip of paper will be cut out with different consonants on it. This strip will slide vertically into the word family paper and will be able to be moved up or down in order to create words. The students love interacting with the slider. I really love all the practice they get with blending sounds and reading.
To add in some writing practice, you can have students write out the words they make and draw a picture. Not only does this provide spelling practice, but you get a peek into their reading comprehension skills too. This is a fun, interactive way to practice those important CVC words and understand how word families work!
5. Word Family Wheel
The word family wheel is so much fun and another one of those activities that I would call a student favorite.
The big word wheel is made up of 3 smaller wheels that students will cut out and put together with a brad. This will ensure that each of the top two wheels will spin so that students can complete the activity.
Students will use the top wheels to spin and spell words that line up with the pictures on the bottom wheel.
By matching a consonant with the target word family, students will spell and read many different words. This activity is such a fun, hands-on way to work on segmenting and spelling skills, as well as reading comprehension. We love adding these to our word family interactive notebook activities.
Grab These Engaging Interactive Word Family Notebook Activities
As you can see, there is no shortage of fun, hands-on activities you can pop into your word family interactive notebook! You can use interactive notebooks to teach all of your phonics word families in a fun and engaging format. Ready to get started? Head on over to TPT to grab the full bundle of Short Vowel Word Family Interactive Notebook Activities.
Not only will these simplify how you teach and practice word families in your room, but I know that you and your students will love having everything you’ve covered all in one place. Not to mention, your students will not even realize how much they are learning and practicing because they will be having so much fun creating!
Looking for More?
Check out these posts next for more phonics activities your students will love!
- Phonics Games to Practice Blending Sounds
- Engaging No-Prep Phonics Games and Activities for Kindergarten
Save These Word Family Interactive Notebook Ideas for Later!
Be sure to save these word family interactive notebook activities to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can quickly and easily find them later!
