Teaching word families
Aim: Use a related word to work out a tricky spelling.
How to explain it
Words from the same family keep a shared spelling even when they sound different. If you know one member of the family, it can show you a letter you can't hear in another: the g in sign is heard in signal, the c in muscle is heard in muscular, and heal is hiding inside health.
Starter (5 minutes)
Write 'sign' on the board and ask why it has a g. Then say 'signal' and 'signature' and let children hear it.
Main activity
Family webs: give each group a root word (sign, know, please, nature). They build a web of related words, then circle the letters that stay the same across the whole family.
Dictation sentences
- Please sign your signature here.
- Eating well is good for your health.
- She has lots of knowledge about nature.
Watch out for
- Spelling each word on its own instead of from its family (sine, helth, nolledge).
Quick check
Ask children to spell these without help:
- design
- healthy
- pleasure
- muscular
Example words
- sign
- signal
- signature
- muscle
- muscular
- know
- knowledge
- heal
- health
- please
- pleasure
- nature
- natural