Paint Chip Word Families

I found this fabulous idea over at the Snail's Trail.  I loved it and immediately went to the hardware store to collect my paint chips.  Here is what we did:

You need about 13 long paint strips with multiple colors on them and 34 with square holes cut out of them.  Some places have the paint chips with holes cut out of them, but I didn't find them on my outing, so I used a square hole punch that I got over at the craft store. 

I wrote these on the cards with the square cut out on them. These are commonly called word families.

• ag
• ab
• ail
• ain
• ack
• ake
• am
• an
• ank
• ap
• all
• at
• ay
• eed
• ell
• est
• ew
• ick
• ight
• ill
• ine
• ing
• ink
• ip
• ob
• og
• ore
• ot
• out
• ow
• uck
• um
• unk
• y

The following consonants, blends, and diagraphs are all written on the long paint chip that has a lot of colors.

Consonants:

• b
• c
• d
• f
• g
• h
• j
• k
• l
• m
• n
• p
• q
• r
• s
• t
• v
• w
• x
• y
• z

Blends:

• bl
• cl
• fl
• gl
• pl
• sl
• br
• cr
• dr
• fr
• gr
• pr
• tr
• sc
• sk
• sp
• st
• sm
• sn
• sw
• spl
• spr
• str
• squ

Diagraphs:

• ch
• wh
• th
• sh
• ph
• thr
• shr

You can make 500+ words with these.  My kids thought they were pretty neat.  I think I will combine it with writing and have my son write the words he discovers in a list.  It should be fun to see how many we can make. 


Come link up your ideas over @ abc & 123