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Word Families - ab, ad, am

The word families ab, ad & am demonstrate the short vowel a sound.  

Free Word Family Activities

1. Draw the word families:  draw a picture of the following word families in action!
   
   • a flabby crab who likes to gab
      
   • a glad lad who went to grad
      
   • a clam who swam with a ram
      
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:

   It's time, it's time to catch a cab.
   And drive right down to the science lab.

   My dad is sad, my dad is mad.
   Oh how I wish my dad was glad!

   I like to eat my eggs and ham.
   Much more than mom's strange yam jam.
    

4. Other activities:
    
   • 'AB' word family:  Crab Paper Plate craft
      
   • 'AD' word family:  glad, sad, mad (we play a game called "mad, sad and glad" around the dinner table.  Everyone shares one thing during the day that made them sad, one thing that made them mad and one thing that made them glad.
      
   • 'AM' word family:  That Sam I Am by Dr.  Seuss is a good book to read.
      
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 this worksheet 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)  [ab]   [ad]   [am]