Short E Word Families Worksheets

These free short e word families worksheets cover the 5 families -et, -en, -ed, -eg, -ell: word family houses, word wheels, sorts, roll and read, fluency grids and a vowel swap page. A word family is a group of words that share an ending, so a child who can read bet can also read get and jet.

Short E word families worksheets to print (PDF)

The four printables below are a house, a sort, a roll and read page and a fluency grid. Click a picture for the PDF.

Short E word families list: every word in the worksheets

The short e word families worksheets use 31 words from the 5 families, which become 39 if you turn on blends. The biggest family is -et with 11 words, and the smallest is -eg with 4. Here is every family:

The short e sound and how its families are spelled

All the short e word families share one vowel sound, the one in bed. It is spelled with the single letter e in every family on this page, but it is the vowel children confuse most with short i: in the speech of many people in the southern United States, pen and pin sound the same, so a child cannot always rely on hearing the difference and has to check the spelling pattern. The Common Core grade 1 reading foundations standards expect children to read regularly spelled one-syllable words, which is what these families practice.

The onset and rime idea behind every word family is explained on the short a word families page.

Where to start with the short e word families

The -et family has 11 words in the houses and wheels: bet, get, jet, let, met, net, pet, set, vet, wet, yet. Turn on the blends option to add no more words.

The -en family has 5 words in the houses and wheels: den, hen, men, pen, ten. Turn on the blends option to add then, when.

The -ed family has 5 words in the houses and wheels: bed, fed, led, red, wed. Turn on the blends option to add sled, shed, fled.

Start with -et because it makes many everyday words. When a child can read the whole family, move on to -en and then the rest, in this order: et, en, ed, eg and ell. The houses can be printed in any order, and you can print a family a second time with the blends turned on.

Short e sentences to read, one for each family

Once children can read the words in a list, they need to meet them in sentences. These sentences use only words from the families on this page, with the family words in bold:

Ask the child to read each sentence, then to underline the family words and say which ones rhyme. For writing practice, ask them to make up their own sentence for each family on the sentence line of the house.

Short e worksheets: how to teach 5 families

A simple plan is one family a day, with a different printable each time, and a fluency grid at the end of the week. This is a schedule for the short e word families:

The week of short e word families ends with a fluency grid. The smallest family, -eg, has only 4 words and is quick to finish, so print its sort on the same day as -et, which has 11.

A worked example: the -et word family worksheet

The biggest of the short e word families is -et, with 11 words: bet, get, jet, let, met, net, pet, set, vet, wet, yet. In its house the ending -et sits on the roof and the words fill the windows. The six boxes underneath already show the ending, and a child writes b, g or j in front of it to build bet, get or jet.

This family has no blend words, so the house holds only the 11 base words.

What is in the complete packet

Pages in each printable:

For the 5 short e word families the complete packet has 16 pages: a house and a wheel for each family (10 pages), plus the sorts, roll and read, fluency grid and vowel swap pages that are shared. The families have 31 words in the houses and wheels, and 8 more with blends turned on.

Short e word families: frequently asked questions

Which short e family should I teach first?

Start with the -et word family: it is the biggest family on this page, with 11 words, and it holds the most common ones, such as get, let and wet.

How many words are in the short e word families?

There are 31 words in the 5 families, and 8 more if you turn on blends. The biggest family is -et with 11 words, and the smallest is -eg with 4.

Which short e words are spelled in unusual ways?

Said, head, bread and friend all have the short e sound but do not use the letter e on its own. They do not belong in the -ed or -en families, so teach them as sight words.

Which short e words are easy to mix up with other vowels?

The vowel swap page pairs bet with bit, pen with pin, bed with bad, leg with log and ten with tan. Pen and pin are the pair that most children need extra practice with.

How do I add blend words to the short e families?

Turn on “Add blend and digraph words” in the generator. On this page -en adds then, when; -ed adds sled, shed, fled. Words with blends go into the houses, wheels and sorts as extra rows.

More word family worksheets

• Short vowel review worksheets with mixed vowels
• Long vowel word families worksheets
• Pre-primer sight words worksheets and 1st grade spelling words