WORD Family Tree

Last year our team of first grade teachers sat down and developed our reading curriculum.  Part of our curriculum includes teaching word families.  There are about 25 word families we teach throughout the year and last year I used those posters that are in the shape of the family - like a picture of a cat for the -at family.  I liked being able to post them around the room so that my students can refer back to the words we create using that family in their writing or during word work.  However, they are HUGE and take up so much space.  I just didn't like how they looked.  So this year I was trying to think of a way to display my word family words in a way that fit my classroom theme.  That's when I thought of our WORD Family Tree.  Take a look:

I thought about making a trunk, painting a trunk... then I remembered I had an old oak tree bulletin board trunk I could use and it turned out to be just the right size.  I hot glued it to my wall.  To create my groups of leaves, I  created clouds using autoshapes in word and made it the color I wanted.  I used text boxes to add all my word families.  BUT, I quickly found out that the 8X11 1/2 sheet of paper was not going to be big enough!  It was too small and I wouldn't be able to write all the words my firsties come up with on the cloud.  So, I took the file to my local Office Max and they blew them up to just under 11 X 17 - I think they were more like 10 X 15. They turned out PERFECT! Then of course I laminated and cut them out and WAHLAH!  Here is another close up picture:

Now I bet you are wondering - HOW am I going to write words on those groups of leaves?  Well I'm NOT going to write on them while they are attached to the wall.  I used velcro strips cut into sections about 3 inches long. I did this on both sides of the cloud. I hot glued the hook side to the wall and the other (loop side) stuck perfectly to the laminated paper.  When it is time to teach for example -ad words, I just walk up to our Word Family Tree, take down the family group of leaves - (our class will brainstorm a list of -ad words) and I will write our words on the leaves and then reattach to our tree.  I think it will be very exciting to see all the words added to our tree as the year progresses.  Here is a picture of how I attached them to the wall:

I am very excited how it turned out and hope my students will use our Word Family Tree to make connections with word families and use these words in their writing.  Our school district does not use a reading series so we have developed our own curriculum guide as well as use the common core standards.  Do you focus on word families in your reading curriculum? Looking forward to lots of comments!  Have a great weekend. Smiles ~