Word Family Search: Free Phonics Printable

Build your sheet

Grid size

Puzzles per page

Include answer key

Answer key style

Name, class and date linesLowercase letters

Kindergarteners and first graders see lowercase in most classroom materials. It is worth matching what they already read.

Free, no account. Prints on US Letter at actual size.

Word Search: Word Families

C	X	B	L	O	C	K	K	G	R
Q	D	P	Q	T	H	I	N	G	X
C	O	F	S	C	V	R	O	D	I
A	C	L	P	H	E	S	C	S	U
K	K	O	K	O	L	P	K	H	B
E	R	C	F	P	K	R	Q	A	R
C	F	K	L	B	R	I	U	K	I
M	A	Q	O	A	V	N	N	E	G
E	L	K	P	L	Y	G	H	G	H
G	L	N	C	L	R	I	G	H	T

– BALL– BLOCK– BRIGHT– CAKE– CHOP– CROP– DOCK– FALL– FLOCK– FLOP– KING– KNOCK– RIGHT– SHAKE– SPRING– THING

Answer Key: Word Families

C	X	B	L	O	C	K	K	G	R
Q	D	P	Q	T	H	I	N	G	X
C	O	F	S	C	V	R	O	D	I
A	C	L	P	H	E	S	C	S	U
K	K	O	K	O	L	P	K	H	B
E	R	C	F	P	K	R	Q	A	R
C	F	K	L	B	R	I	U	K	I
M	A	Q	O	A	V	N	N	E	G
E	L	K	P	L	Y	G	H	G	H
G	L	N	C	L	R	I	G	H	T

A word family is a group that shares an ending and rhymes because of it. CAKE, LAKE, MAKE, RAKE, TAKE. Read one and you have most of what you need for the other four.

That transfer is the reason these are taught in groups instead of as separate words, and it is also what makes them work on a grid.

The families on this sheet

Six of them, chosen because each has enough members to be visible as a pattern:

-ake: CAKE, LAKE, MAKE, RAKE, TAKE, WAKE, BAKE, SNAKE, SHAKE, BRAKE
-all: BALL, CALL, FALL, HALL, MALL, TALL, WALL, SMALL, STALL
-ing: RING, KING, SING, WING, THING, BRING, STRING, SPRING
-ight: LIGHT, NIGHT, RIGHT, SIGHT, TIGHT, BRIGHT, FLIGHT, FRIGHT
-op: STOP, SHOP, DROP, CHOP, CROP, PROP, FLOP, SLOP
-ock: ROCK, SOCK, LOCK, DOCK, CLOCK, BLOCK, FLOCK, SHOCK, KNOCK, STOCK

Ten members in one family is more than a sheet needs, and that is on purpose. The generator draws a subset each time, so two printings of the same size give a different mix from the same families.

Let them notice it themselves

The temptation is to announce the pattern first. Resist it for five minutes.

Hand out the sheet and let students find words. Somewhere around the fourth or fifth one, somebody says these all end the same.

Some classes get there on their own and some do not. If nobody has it after five minutes, say it yourself.

Then name it: these are word families, and the ending is what they share.

The -ight family is the useful one

LIGHT, NIGHT, RIGHT, SIGHT and BRIGHT all contain the letters igh making a single long-i sound, with the gh doing nothing at all.

Sounding that out does not work, and there is no rule to fall back on. The same silent gh turns up in high, sigh, eight and thought, so it is not a one-off, but there is nothing in the letters themselves that tells a child which sound to make. The only way through is to know the chunk on sight.

Which makes this family the clearest possible argument for why word families are taught: some spellings simply have to be learned as units, and -ight is the one where a child feels the difference between decoding and recognizing.

Building a single-family sheet

The version most useful for a lesson is one family at a time, and this page cannot give you that because the grid draws across all six.

The craft page can. Type your ten -ake words, choose a grid, print. Every word on the sheet then reinforces the same ending, and a child who finds SNAKE after CAKE and LAKE is seeing the pattern three times instead of once.

It takes a minute and it is the better sheet.

Common questions

What is a word family?

A group of words that share the same ending chunk and rhyme because of it: cake, lake, make, rake, take. A child who can read one of them has most of what they need for the rest, which is why these are taught together.

Can I get a sheet with only one family?

The craft page does that in about a minute. Type just the -ight words you are working on, print, and every word on the sheet reinforces the same ending. That single-family version is more useful for a lesson than the mixed one.

Can one sheet work for two reading levels at once?

This is the topic where it does. A family grows at the front, so CAKE, LAKE and BAKE sit on the same sheet as SNAKE, BRAKE and SHAKE. A child still sounding out three letters and a child ready for a blend can work the same grid and each find words at their level.

Why do some families need a bigger grid?

Length, but only at the top end. Most families here are four and five letters and fit anywhere. The -ight family runs to six, and light, night and right sit alongside bright, flight and fright, so a sheet built around them needs the 10x10 or larger to hold more than two of them at once.

C	X	B	L	O	C	K	K	G	R
Q	D	P	Q	T	H	I	N	G	X
C	O	F	S	C	V	R	O	D	I
A	C	L	P	H	E	S	C	S	U
K	K	O	K	O	L	P	K	H	B
E	R	C	F	P	K	R	Q	A	R
C	F	K	L	B	R	I	U	K	I
M	A	Q	O	A	V	N	N	E	G
E	L	K	P	L	Y	G	H	G	H
G	L	N	C	L	R	I	G	H	T

C	X	B	L	O	C	K	K	G	R
Q	D	P	Q	T	H	I	N	G	X
C	O	F	S	C	V	R	O	D	I
A	C	L	P	H	E	S	C	S	U
K	K	O	K	O	L	P	K	H	B
E	R	C	F	P	K	R	Q	A	R
C	F	K	L	B	R	I	U	K	I
M	A	Q	O	A	V	N	N	E	G
E	L	K	P	L	Y	G	H	G	H
G	L	N	C	L	R	I	G	H	T

C	X	B	L	O	C	K	K	G	R
Q	D	P	Q	T	H	I	N	G	X
C	O	F	S	C	V	R	O	D	I
A	C	L	P	H	E	S	C	S	U
K	K	O	K	O	L	P	K	H	B
E	R	C	F	P	K	R	Q	A	R
C	F	K	L	B	R	I	U	K	I
M	A	Q	O	A	V	N	N	E	G
E	L	K	P	L	Y	G	H	G	H
G	L	N	C	L	R	I	G	H	T

C	X	B	L	O	C	K	K	G	R
Q	D	P	Q	T	H	I	N	G	X
C	O	F	S	C	V	R	O	D	I
A	C	L	P	H	E	S	C	S	U
K	K	O	K	O	L	P	K	H	B
E	R	C	F	P	K	R	Q	A	R
C	F	K	L	B	R	I	U	K	I
M	A	Q	O	A	V	N	N	E	G
E	L	K	P	L	Y	G	H	G	H
G	L	N	C	L	R	I	G	H	T

Word Family Printables