Build a Word Family Sandwich File Folder Game

Kindergarten Elementary Language Arts File Folder Games Printables

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Matching file folder games are everywhere.

A quick search on Pinterest alone, for example, will net you at least a dozen choices.

Our site will do the same as we’ve made a ton of them and love them just as much as any other file folder game.

But when we first started working on word families and needed a new game to practice with, I wanted something different.

I wanted to look beyond simply matching the words from a word family together and really see what we could build with them.

In the end, we decided to build some word family sandwiches that look good enough to eat!

Tired of practicing word families with worksheets? Build a word family sandwich or two with this fun file folder game and get your kiddos excited about learning to read! #FromABCsToACTs

While this game does include several pieces, it’s a fun, hands-on way to practice those sometimes tricky word families that your little beginning readers will be begging to play, over and over again!

Assembling the Word Family Sandwich Game

As with all of our file folder games, you’ll need to gather up a few basic supplies if you’d like to make this game yourself.

You’ll need:

A manila file folder
Scissors
Clear contact paper
Laminator (optional, but highly recommended)
Velcro dots (entirely optional for this game)
The word family sandwich printable (below)

To start, print and cut out all of the sandwich pieces that are included within the download.

In total, you will build eight different word family sandwiches with this game and each of those sandwiches includes eight pieces.

Each sandwich includes two pieces of bread (with the word family identified on each), two smears of mayonnaise, cheese, tomato, lettuce, and ham.

After they have been cut out, set one piece of bread for each sandwich aside and run the rest of the pieces through your laminator for durability.

Use some of your clear contact paper to attach the cover of the game to the front of your folder and use a bit more contact paper to attach each of the eight pieces of bread that you set aside earlier to the inside of your folder. This is where you will build your sandwiches.

Now, if you’d prefer not to use Velcro dots in this game, then you’re all done and ready to start building those sandwiches. If you’d like to use Velcro, however, this is where you would add it.

For our own game, we chose not to, but if you’d like to, simply add one set of Velcro dots to the front of each sandwich piece (except for the top piece of bread) and then add the opposite Velcro dots to the back of each sandwich piece (including the top piece of bread) as this will allow you to layer each piece of the sandwich and hold it in place.

Using the Word Family Sandwich Game

As I said earlier, each sandwich includes eight different pieces. You have already used one piece of bread from each sandwich by attaching them to your folder so now, you’ll just need to add the rest of the pieces on top of each one.

Have your child determine the word family that is written on the bottom piece of bread and then have them start searching out the words that belong within that word family from the rest of their sandwich pieces.

You can separate them ahead of time if you feel like all of the pieces together would be too much for your child to start with or you can have them sort through them all, it’s entirely up to you!

For each sandwich, however, they’ll need to find a smear of mayonnaise…