Year 6 · SPaG · Spring: Vocabulary
Year 6 word families worksheet and PowerPoint
To recognise words in the same word family and to use the root to understand and spell related words.
Word families
Words in the same word family share a root and have related meanings. Spotting the root helps you read, spell and understand new words.
| sign | signal, signature, design, resign |
|---|---|
| act | action, active, actor, react |
| photo / graph | photograph, photographer, autograph, paragraph |
| look-alikes | words that only look similar are not in the family: sing is not related to sign |
Examples
- friend, friendly, friendship, befriend
- bio (life): biology, biography
Key words
- word family
- words with the same root and related meanings
- root
- the part that carries the main meaning
- related
- connected in meaning
- look-alike
- a word that looks similar but is not related
What is on the worksheet
Every sheet for this lesson has a short teaching box and 12 questions that get gradually harder: 8 fluency questions, then 4 reasoning questions that ask pupils to explain or choose. A writing challenge follows. The questions use the same styles as the key stage 2 grammar and punctuation test (circle, underline, tick, fill the gap, add punctuation, rewrite, explain). They are written for this website, not copied from past papers.
All the answers are on the last page of the same editable Word file. New questions are made every time, so you can print a different sheet for every group or for homework. The same sheet code always gives the same sheet.
Writing challenge: Choose three roots (for example act, port and graph). For each, write as many words from its family as you can, and use two of them in sentences.
Pupil target: I can find the words in a word family.
The PowerPoint
A 20-slide lesson deck for the same lesson: a starter that revisits earlier learning, key words, an I do and a You do question on each slide with a countdown timer, answers that appear one click at a time, and a challenge. Download the word families PowerPoint.
Where this lesson fits
This is lesson 52 of 72 in the Year 6 SPaG scheme, in the Spring term, block “Vocabulary”. It is taught before the SATs grammar test in May.
Other lessons in this block
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