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Word Family Phonics - an, ap, at

The word families an, ap & at are a good phonics group to start with.  They all have the short vowel a sound.  There are a good variety of words in the families that have familiar picture clues (like cat, van, cap, etc).
 

Free Word Family Activities

1. Draw the word families:  draw a picture of the following word families in action!
   
   • an old man with a tan fan
      
   • a chap with a cap
      
   • a fat cat on a mat
      
2. Create your own word family sentences using the ones above as a model.  Try to create at least one sentence for each family.
    
3. Create a short rhyme using your word families.  This is a good activity to do as a group.  Here are some examples:

   Run, run as fast as you can.
   You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!

   I have a very pretty cap.
   I like to keep it on my lap.

   One day a fat rat.
   Ran away from a cat.
    

4. Other activities:
    
   • 'AN' word family:  Gingerbread Man poem and activities
      
   • 'AP' word family:  Make a treasure map.
      
   • 'AT' word family:  Make a puppet show with the cat paper bag puppet and bat paper bag puppet
      
5. Use the free printable worksheets provided to reinforce the activities.
    
6. Flash card activities:

   These cards can be used for sentence building with the sentence sequencing activities.

   Print two copies of the flashcard worksheets to play "concentration" (the memory game).  Or print the flash card worksheets from a number of word families to play "go fish" or "snap".

Flash cards for the word families (6 each)  [an]   [ap]   [at]