Short I Word Families Worksheets

These free short i word families worksheets cover the 5 families -it, -ig, -in, -ip, -id: 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 bit can also read fit and hit.

Short I 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 I word families list: every word in the worksheets

The short i word families worksheets use 35 words from the 5 families, which become 61 if you turn on blends. The biggest family is -ip with 9 words, and the smallest is -ig with 6. Here is every family:

The short i sound and how its families are spelled

All the short i word families share one vowel sound, the one in sit. It is spelled with the single letter i in every family here, and it is the sound that silent e turns into the long vowel: bit becomes bite, pin becomes pine, hid becomes hide and kit becomes kite. The Common Core grade 1 reading foundations standards expect children to read regularly spelled one-syllable words, which is what these families practice.

Try that with a child: read the short word, add the e on a card, and ask what changed. It is the quickest route into the long vowel word families. The onset and rime idea behind every family is explained on the short a word families page.

Where to start with the short i word families

The -it family has 8 words in the houses and wheels: bit, fit, hit, kit, lit, pit, sit, wit. Turn on the blends option to add slit, spit, grit, skit, quit, knit.

The -ig family has 6 words in the houses and wheels: big, dig, fig, jig, pig, wig. Turn on the blends option to add twig.

The -in family has 6 words in the houses and wheels: bin, fin, kin, pin, tin, win. Turn on the blends option to add chin, grin, skin, spin, thin, twin, shin.

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

Short i 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 i 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 i word families:

The week of short i word families ends with a fluency grid. The smallest family, -ig, has only 6 words and is quick to finish, so print its sort on the same day as -ip, which has 9.

A worked example: the -ip word family worksheet

The biggest of the short i word families is -ip, with 9 words: dip, hip, lip, nip, rip, sip, tip, yip, zip. In its house the ending -ip sits on the roof and the words fill the windows. The six boxes underneath already show the ending, and a child writes d, h or l in front of it to build dip, hip or lip.

With blends turned on it also holds chip, ship, skip, slip, trip, whip, drip, flip, grip.

What is in the complete packet

Pages in each printable:

For the 5 short i 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 35 words in the houses and wheels, and 26 more with blends turned on.

Short i word families: frequently asked questions

Which short i family should I teach first?

Start with the -it word family: it has 8 words in the houses and 6 more with blends, and it is the family where children first see how the same ending can begin many different words.

How many words are in the short i word families?

There are 35 words in the 5 families, and 26 more if you turn on blends. The biggest family is -ip with 9 words, and the smallest is -ig with 6.

Which words look like short i words but are not?

Give and live end in e but keep the short i, so they do not follow the silent e rule. Find, kind and mind look like -in words with a d added, but the i says its long name.

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

The vowel swap page pairs big with bag and bug, pin with pen, lid with lad and hit with hat and hut. The pairs that need the most practice are usually pin and pen and bit and bet.

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

Turn on “Add blend and digraph words” in the generator. On this page -it adds slit, spit, grit; -ig adds twig. 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