Word Pipes!!! Super Mario Word Families Printables

As part of our Super Mario Bros. week(s), I created these "Word Pipes" for creating word families. They are essentially the same concept as word ladders, but with a Mario theme.

Pin It The child can either write the beginning sounds on the pipes or (for non-writers) use the beginning sounds tiles I've included below.


I thought these would add a fun twist to something that tends to be pretty mundane. We played with these today and Robbie LOVED them. He had fun making nonsense words (an important part of the process of learning to read and spell) along with real words.





These are NOT comprehensive, but they cover many of the most common families (both long, short and r/l controlled vowels are includes).

"A" Word Pipes

"E" Word Pipes

"I" Word Pipes

"O" Word Pipes

"U" Word Pipes

Beginning Consonants, Blends and Digraphs Tiles (includes two blank word pipes -- ink/paper savers can simply laminate these and write the word family endings as they need them).

Download the entire set of Word Pipes and tiles

You can see more about our Super Mario Bros week here. You can also download all of our Super Mario printables for FREE here.