📖 ReadingLevel 1Lesson 7
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Rhyming Words and Word Families

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What you will learn

  • 1Identify rhyming words by hearing that they share the same ending sound
  • 2Group words into word families that share the same vowel-consonant ending
  • 3Use a known word family to read new words by swapping the onset
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Mini Lesson

Have you ever noticed that some words sound alike at the end? Cat and hat both end in /-at/. Hop and top both end in /-op/. Words that share the same ending sound are called rhyming words — and groups of them form a word family!

What makes words rhyme?

  • Rhyming words have the same vowel + consonant ending — called the rime.
  • Only the beginning sound (the onset) changes.
  • Example: c-at · h-at · b-at · s-at → all in the -at family!

Why word families help you read

  • If you can read cat, you can quickly read hat, bat, mat, sat, rat — just swap the first sound!
  • Word families are a shortcut — learn one, read many.
  • They also help you spell: if you know -ight, you can spell light, night, right, fight.

Eight word families in this lesson

  • -at: cat / hat · -ig: big / wig
  • -op: hop / top · -en: hen / ten
  • -ug: bug / mug · -ake: cake / lake
  • -ing: ring / sing · -ight: night / light

Words to know

Rhyme

When two words share the same ending sound

e.g. cat / hat, bug / mug

Word family

A group of words that share the same vowel + consonant ending (the rime)

e.g. -at, -ig, -op, -ug, -ake, -ing, -ight

Onset

The beginning consonant sound of a word — the part that changes when you swap

e.g. the c in cat, the h in hat

Rime

The vowel + ending consonant part of a word — the part that stays the same in a family

e.g. the -at in cat, hat, bat, sat

Three word families with their rhyming wordsThree labeled boxes — the -at family (cat, bat, hat, rat), the -ig family (pig, dig, big, wig), and the -op family (hop, top, mop, pop) — each showing the family ending and the rhyming words inside.Three Word Families-atcatbathatratall rhyme!-igpigdigbigwigall rhyme!-ophoptopmoppopall rhyme!
Each box is a word family — all the words inside rhyme.
Cat and hat rhyme — the -at ending is the sameA rhyming pair. On the left a cat with a label cat; on the right a hat with a label hat. The matching -at ending is circled and highlighted at the bottom to show the shared rime.cat and hat rhyme!cathatsame ending sound — the rime:-at
Cat and hat rhyme — both end with the -at sound.
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Ask yourself: "Do these two words end with the same sound? Then they rhyme!"

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