"ake" Word Family Art Project

I know I have posted this before but it is so worth posting again.  I did it a bit differently this time.  It is a "Suzi McMahan" project I love!  And better yet, the kindergartners love it! 

Word families are great for young readers as it helps the children find patterns in words.  This not only helps reading but spelling as well.  The "ake" word family also reinforces the "silent e" concept. At this time of year, this becomes an important concept as reading begins to explode in the classroom.

I tell my students that sometimes "e" is a polite fellow and can be very quiet.  When he takes his place at the end, he lets his friends do all the talking.  He is the kind of fellow that always lets his friends go first.  When he is polite - his friends say their name! (His friends are the vowels.)

For example:  cake  - sweet "e" is quiet as can be so his friend "a" can say her name! (long vowel sound)

Here is a link to Cherry Carl's "ake" family pdf!  This pdf has some good reinforcement of this word family study.

 Step 1: Draw a large rectangle on the bottom of your paper.

 Step 2: Draw a smaller rectangle on top of the first one.

 Step 3:  Draw a smaller rectangle on top of the middle sized one.

 Step 4:  Add frosting!  You can use a half circle (called scallops) or curvy lines.

 Step 5:  Add more frosting!  Dots, zigzags. . . 

 Step 6:  Make the snakes!  Make an S.

Step 7:  Draw another line to enclose the S.  Make five to six snakes.  

Write an "ake" family word inside your snake.

 I tell the children to use at least five colors.   Cut out the cake and the snakes.  Glue the snakes on the cake!

Gingerbread Man Word Family Slider

Kindergartners love word family sliders! It is such fun! This one is very easy to make.

What you need:

• Print out the gingerbread man below.  I print it on brown construction paper.  I cut the construction paper down to 8 1/2 x 11 and feed it into the copier through the side feeder.  You will have to check to see if your copier does this.  
• Print copies of the letters below on basic white copy paper.  Cut into strips.  I cut mine just a tad wider than the letters.
    (See example in photo above.)

What to do:

• Have the children decorate the gingerbread man with crayons and markers.
• Cut out the gingerbread man.
• TEACHERS - cut slits for sliders.  You can pre-cut the sliders or let the children cut them.  I prefer to cut them for them.  Cut the lines so that the strip will display the letters next to "an."   (Tip - I use an x-acto knife to quickly cut the slits.)

Feeding the slider into the paper. You can see the slits were pre-cut for this kindergartner and he could not wait to see the slider in action!! 

This child cut the slits with scissors.  Older students can manage this just fine.  I prefer to do this for the kindergartners for proper place of the slider.

Gingerbread Man Form

Gingerbread Man Slider for an word family

The "en" Word Family

This is a great Little Red Hen project that I first saw my friend, Mrs. McCain do in her class.  It is excellent tracing and cutting practice as well as the word family work.

 I love to see how the children embellish the hens with details.

 I prepare brown paper with paint and cut some of it up into strips for the nest.

 I feel it is important to let the children put it all together in their own way.  I do not like every one looking the same.  It is so much more fun to let them do it their way!

These are the tracers I provide for the children.

CVC Sound Boxes

This is a great tool for building phonemic awareness.  You use this just like the chips and Elkonin sound boxes where each box represents one phoneme.  In this method, you have the child touch the green for the first sound, the yellow for the middle sound and the red for the ending sound.  This is a great visual to help children as they begin to sound out words, identify beginning, medial and ending sounds, the list goes on!

To use:  Print, cut out the sound box and laminate. 

CVC Sound Boxes

Frogs on a Log - The "og" Word Family

Here is another one of those adorable word family projects from Mrs. McMahan's room!

What you will need:
brown and green construction paper
crayons
scissors
glue

 Step One:  Draw the lower case letter m.

 Step Two: Add a wide u to make the face.

 Step Three:  Add two ovals for eyes with black dots.  Add eye brows and a mouth.

 Step Four:  Draw a large round body.

Step Five:  Write a "og" family word on the belly.  Add legs if you wish.

 Step Six:  Cut out the frogs.

 Step Seven:  Fold the brown construction paper in half longways.  Glue along the sides to make a pocket.

Step Eight:  With brown or black crayon, draw the lines of the bark on your log.

Put your frogs in your log!

Frogs in a log!

Bugs in a Rug; The "ug" Word Family Art Project

This is another one of Mrs. McMahon's word family projects.  Love, love, love it!  The kids loved it as well!  Super easy.  There was that beloved purr of busy workers during this project today.  It was sooo great!

You will need two 9 x 12 sheets of construction paper (color is your choice), sharpies, glue sticks, and scissors.

 STEP ONE:  I modeled writing a "ug" word, putting a circle around it and adding bug details.  We drew six "ug" bugs together as a class (bug, tug, mug, rug, hug, slug).

 STEP TWO:  Each child cuts out their bugs.  I told them not to worry about cutting close to the outline.

 STEP THREE:  To make the rug, fold the 9 x 12 paper in half (portrait direction).  Color and decorate.  Glue the two sides closed, leaving the top open.

(The opening is where you will put your "bugs.")

STEP FOUR:  Cut fringe on either side of the pocket where it is glued shut.

 STEP FIVE:  It is ready for your bugs!  Yikes! Bugs are in your rug!

Snakes on my Cake! The "ake" Word Family

This was a project I saw in another kindergarten in my hallway - Mrs. McMahon.   She had several word family art projects that you will see over the next two weeks.  I think this is such a great way to reinforce the word families.   I also used a reader from Carla's Corner ake Word Family Reader.  This site has a treasure trove of emergent readers.

STEP ONE:  Draw a cake on a 9 x 12 construction paper.  I make three rectangles to make my cake.

 STEP TWO:  My favorite part of the cake is the frosting!  So add frosting.  I use half circles to create frosting.

 STEP THREE:  Since this is all about the "ake" word family - write "ake" on the cake!

 STEP FOUR:  Now for the fun!  Draw snakes to write some "ake" words on.  I like to make a large S to form my snakes.