Free AT Word Family Worksheets + Phonics Activities and Squirrel Science

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Inside: Free AT word family worksheets for short A phonics practice, plus practical ideas for word building, CVC reading, sentences, hands-on activities, and shared reading.

There is a big difference between a child reading cat because they remember seeing it before and a child looking at the letters c-a-t, connecting them with the sounds /k/ /ă/ /t/, and working out the word for themselves.

That second skill is what we want to build.

The -at word family is one of the simplest short A CVC word families to practise with beginning readers because the ending stays consistent while the first sound changes: at, cat, sat, bat, mat, pat, rat, fat, and hat. Children get repeated practice with the short A sound while also learning to notice a common word pattern.

I created A Squirrel Sat as the first mini unit in my new Grade 1 phonics series. The complete unit begins with short A phonics and gradually moves to phrases, sentences, squirrel science, shared reading, and comprehension. But you do not need the complete unit to use the free pages in this post.

I have taken a substantial set of AT word family worksheets from the unit and put them together as a free printable pack. They can be used completely on their own for extra phonics practice.

If you already follow a reading curriculum, simply use these pages when your child reaches short A and the -at pattern. They can work as review, additional practice, homeschool reading work, literacy-center activities, or something to pull out when a child understands the lesson but needs more repetition before moving on.

AT Word Family Words

The main AT word family words in this pack are: at • bat • cat • fat • hat • mat • pat • rat • sat

Most are simple short A CVC words, which makes this word family useful for early reading, spelling, and word-recognition practice.

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Get the free AT word family worksheets

This free printable resource begins with at, cat, and sat and gradually increases the reading demand. Children blend words, build and change CVC words, read additional -at words, move into short phrases and AT word family sentences, and finally try the beginning of the A Squirrel Sat shared reader.

The download also includes the Parent & Teacher Guide, so you have some guidance for using the activities at home or in the classroom.

Use these pages on their own or alongside the phonics/reading curriculum you already use. The worksheets come from my complete A Squirrel Sat mini unit, but you do not need the full unit to use them.

Looking for more no-cost resources? You can browse all of my free homeschool printables here.

Why I prefer phonics for beginning reading

If you’re teaching reading in the early years, I go into much more detail about how we approached phonics, Logic of English, and early reading in my homeschool preschool guide.

I have always preferred phonics-based reading instruction because it goes beyond memorizing words. Kids learn how the written language works. They learn that letters represent sounds, that those sounds can be blended to read a word, and that the same knowledge works in reverse when they spell. UFLI describes this as decoding and encoding: once children know sound-letter correspondences, they can use them both to read and spell words.

That reading-and-spelling connection is one of the reasons I like phonics so much.

If you have the budget for a complete phonics curriculum, my personal recommendation is Logic of English. If I were starting homeschooling again, it would be one of my first purchases.

Logic of English Foundations integrates reading and spelling instruction, including explicit Spelling Analysis, and they currently provide free phonogram practice and spelling-analysis videos that can support the lessons.

It is also the program I used when teaching my own son to read. He is in high school now, and spelling became such a strong skill for him that we never ended up needing a separate spelling curriculum afterward.

That is my family’s experience, not a guarantee that one curriculum will suit every child. But if someone asked me what I would personally buy if I had to teach reading from the beginning again, Logic of English would still be my first choice.

You can also see where Logic of English fits among the other programs we’ve used long-term in my guide to our favorite homeschool curriculum.

A few tips before you print

These word family practice worksheets are meant for extra practice, so use them once your child has already been introduced to short A and the letter sounds needed for the words on the page. You do not need to complete the pages in one sitting or even use every page. Pick the activities that give your kids practice with the skill they are currently working on.

One thing I would watch for is guessing. Word-family activities can make it tempting to look at the picture or assume every word says cat because it ends in -at. If that happens, simply bring your child’s attention back to the letters and have them read the word before checking the picture.

And reuse the pages. A worksheet does not have to be a one-time pencil-and-paper activity. Add counters, stamps, stickers, magnetic letters, a dry-erase sleeve, or a little movement and the same page can give you several rounds of useful reading practice.

How to use these free AT word family worksheets

Start With at, cat, and sat

The first page introduces at, cat, and sat and gives children practice blending, noticing the shared -at pattern, tracing, and writing the words. Before your kid picks up a pencil, read the words together. Then see what else you can do with them.

Cover the completed word on the right and ask your child to read it from the separated letters. Use three counters and move one for each sound. Write cat on a whiteboard and ask what needs to change to make sat. Or write all three words on sticky notes, stick them around the room, and call out one for your child to find and read.

You can come back to the tracing and writing afterward. The page is much more useful when it becomes reading practice first and handwriting practice second.

Feed the Squirrel

Feed the Squirrel gives children another round of reading at, cat, and sat, but this time the words are mixed together on acorns. Don’t feel limited by the instruction to color.Let your child stamp the word, dot it with a bingo marker, put a sticker on it, or cover it with a small counter after reading it.

You can also turn the page into a simple bingo-style game. Call out cat, sat, or at and have your child cover one matching acorn. Keep going until the board is full. Then switch. Your child reads a word and you find it.

And make a mistake occasionally. If your child says cat, point to sat and ask, “This one?” Having to correct you gives them a very good reason to look closely at the letters.

Build the Words

The next page lets children physically build at, cat, and sat with the included letter pieces. This is one I would definitely cut apart and keep. Please bear in mind you can print multiple copies if you want to have more letters available for play. Start by building at. Add c to make cat. Then ask your child to change cat into sat without starting over.

Once that is easy, stop giving them the answer.

• “Can you build cat?”
• “Now make sat.”
• “Can you make a word with only two letters?”

You can use magnetic letters instead of the printable pieces too or even sticky notes. The worksheet is just giving you the activity; you do not have to use it exactly as printed.

Change the Sounds

Now the pack expands into sat, cat, bat, mat, pat, rat, fat, and hat. This page asks kids to change the beginning of an -at word to make a new word. Turn it into a spoken game before doing the writing. “Say cat. Change the /c/ to /m/. What do you get?”

Then try another: mat → rat → hat → bat.

You can make these little word chains in the car, while making lunch, or with magnetic letters on the fridge. It is also a useful spelling activity because the child is thinking about which sound changed and which letter needs to change with it.

To make this more of a challenge you can cover the first column or fold it so kids don’t see the next words. You can use this as dictation too. You can also use magnetic letters on your fridge and change just the beginning sound. Again, these worksheets are there to give you activity ideas, if you have kids who love worksheets and sitting at the table do tdo work, great, use them as they are. If you have kids that won’t sit still or aren’t ready to do worksheets (including younger kids in preschool), adapt these to magnetic letters, stickers, writing with chalk outside, kinetic sand writing, and anything that your kids enjoy.

Read More -AT Words

You can use this as review or reinforcement. Kids read the words and match them to their pictures. Have your kids read the word before looking for the matching picture. You can even have them connect the first sound to -at and then to the pictures.

Then use the vocabulary for a guessing game:

• “I am thinking of something you wear on your head.”
  • Hat.
• “I am thinking of an animal that flies at night.”
  • Bat.
• “I am thinking of something that might be by the front door.”
  • Mat.

You can also ask your child to find all the animal words, find the word that names something you wear, or choose a word and use it in a silly oral sentence. They are still rereading the same words, but now there is a reason to think about what those words mean.

Build More -AT Words

The next page gives children a, t, and several beginning letters so they can make their own -at words.

Make it a challenge by asking:

• “How many real -at words can you build?”
• “Leave at together and swap the first letter.”

Keep a tally or write every successful word on a whiteboard. For a child who needs to move, hide the beginning letters around the room. Each time they find one, they bring it back, put it in front of at, and read the word they made. Of course, you can use magnetic tiles, sticky notes, magna tiles (you can write on these with dry erase markers) and many more moving alphabet pieces.

If your child learns better with manipulatives, I also rounded up some of our favorite hands-on learning tools for 6-year-olds, including reading and spelling manipulatives.

And if you want to take this activity even further here are some more ideas:

• Clothespin words: Write beginning letters on clothespins. The child clips one in front of an at card, reads the word, then swaps it for another.
• Build with blocks: Put a and t on two LEGO bricks, Magna-Tiles, or blocks and connect them. Write beginning letters on separate pieces so children can snap on a new first letter.
• Playdough swap: Make at from playdough and leave it untouched. Children form a new beginning letter, read the word, squish only that letter, and make another one.
• Mystery-letter bag: Put magnetic or foam letters in a bag. Children reach in without looking, pull out a letter, place it before at, and decide if they made a real word.
• Spin and build: Make a simple spinner with b, c, f, h, m, p, r, s. Spin, add that letter to at, then read the word. (Template included in the full printable)
• Roll and build: Stick beginning letters onto the sides of a cube or use letter cards numbered 1–6. Roll, find the matching letter, and build the word. (Template included in the full printable)
• Feed the squirrel 2: write beginning letters on paper acorns. Pick an acorn, add it to at, and read the word. If it makes a real word, the squirrel gets to “keep” the acorn. (Printable included in the full pack)
• Acorn hunt: Hide paper acorns with beginning letters around the room or outside. Bring each one back to the at card and test the word. (Printable included in the full pack)
• Hop and blend: Put beginning letters on the floor and place at a short distance away. Step on a beginning letter, say its sound, then jump to at and blend the whole word.
• Post-it wall: Stick at to a wall or door. Write beginning letters on sticky notes and let children physically replace the first letter each time.

Move Into Short Phrases

The next worksheet asks children to read a bat, a hat, and a rat and find the matching picture. If your child has not learned the word a yet, just tell them what it says. This is a practice pack, not a test. Then let them do the phonics work on bat, hat, and rat.

You can make more phrases with scraps of paper. Keep a on one card and make separate cards for cat, bat, rat, hat, and mat. Swap the second card each time and read the new phrase. That gives you five or ten minutes of extra reading without another worksheet.

Read the -AT Sentences

Now the words appear in short sentences such as A cat sat, A rat sat, and A fat cat sat. I would not turn this into a speed exercise.Read the sentences. Circle or highlight the -at words. Find the sentence with the most -at words. Cover one word with a sticky note and guess what might fit, then uncover it and read the actual word to check.

You can also cut strips of paper and copy the sentences onto them. Mix them up and let your child choose one to read.

Finish the Sentence

This page gives children familiar -at words and lets them choose which word completes each sentence. The fun part is that you can try more than one answer. Fill the blank, read the whole sentence, then erase it and try another -at word. You may end up with a completely ridiculous sentence. Read it anyway.

The kid is practicing the same phonics pattern while also beginning to notice how words work together in sentences.

Try Shared Reading

The free pack also includes the beginning of the A Squirrel Sat reader. This one is meant to be read together. You read the regular story text and pause when you reach one of the highlighted words your child has practised. They read that part. There is no expectation that a beginning reader working on cat and sat should suddenly be able to decode every word in a story about a squirrel.

Want to Keep Going? Here’s What the Full A Squirrel Sat Printable Adds

The free AT word family worksheets in this post are designed to stand on their own. If you only need extra short A practice to use alongside your current reading program, they may be all you need.

The complete A Squirrel Sat mini unit is for families who want the next steps already planned. It takes the same -at pattern beyond basic word-family practice and adds hands-on phonics games, more sentence work, squirrel science, the complete shared reader, and comprehension.

The full printable also includes several hands-on phonics activities that are not part of the free sample. Children can make -at words by feeding letter acorns to a squirrel, test beginning sounds with a consonant spinner, and use printable dice to build and read new word combinations. These are useful when your child needs more repetition but another worksheet is not going to be very exciting.

The complete mini unit includes an adult-led science read-aloud about squirrels in fall, habitats, food, shelter, and why squirrels store food, followed by simple activities that let kids use what they have learned. The science is intentionally read aloud, so a beginning reader can still learn richer vocabulary and ideas without being expected to decode all of that text independently.

Then there is the complete A Squirrel Sat shared reader.

The free pack gives you a small preview, but the full printable contains the entire story. You read the more difficult story text while your child joins in with the words and phonics patterns they have already practised. Afterward, there is a picture-sequencing activity you can use for comprehension and oral retelling.

That is really the biggest difference between the free pages and the complete mini unit. The full printable gives you a planned progression from phonics practice into reading, science, and comprehension.

So if you enjoy putting your own lessons together, you may be perfectly happy using the free pages alongside your existing curriculum. If you would rather print one resource and have the activities, hands-on practice, story, science, and follow-up work already prepared, that is what the full A Squirrel Sat mini unit is for.

Inside the complete mini unit you’ll find:

• parent and teacher guidance;
• short A (-AT) phonics and word-building activities;
• hands-on games and printable manipulatives;
• phrase and sentence reading;
• sentence-building practice;
• squirrel science read-aloud and activities;
• the complete A Squirrel Sat shared mini reader;
• story sequencing and comprehension practice.

A Few Final Thoughts on the -AT Word Family

You do not need a huge stack of worksheets to teach one word family well. What matters more is giving children enough practice to read, build, change, spell, and use the same pattern in different ways.

That is one of the things I like most about phonics. Children are not just memorizing cat as a whole word. They are learning how c + at becomes cat, and they can use that same knowledge to read bat, mat, rat, and hat. The spelling practice comes naturally with it too.

Use the free pages as they suit your child: print them, turn them into games, use magnetic letters, or add movement. There is no need to rush through them.

A Squirrel Sat is the first mini unit in this series, and I’ll keep adding new phonics patterns with the same focus on practical reading practice and connected reading.

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