Looking for some engaging ways to incorporate morphology practice in the classroom? Here are 5 engaging prefix and suffix activities that support students' expanding vocabulary!
Word Sorts
When using word sorts for prefix and suffix practice, I often have students sort words with suffixes or prefixes that mean the opposite of each other (I.e., -ful and -less). This way the word sorts can clearly draw students' attention to how these affixes change the meaning of a base word.
Here's an example of a word sort I use:
Word List:
hope
hopeless
hopeful
help
helpful
helpless
use
useful
useless
harm
harmful
harmless
The columns that students sort these words under have the headings: care, careful, and careless.
Students sort the words under the appropriate columns (care: hope, help, use, harm) (careful: hopeful, helpful, useful, harmful) (careless: hopeless, helpless, useless, harmless).
As they sort the words (or once the words are sorted), students discuss with a partner how the meaning of the base word changes based on the suffix added. (I.e., when you add -ful to "hope," it means that someone is full of hope, but when you add -less to "hope," it means that they do not have any hope).
Different extensions can be added to these word sorts beyond the discussion. Students can record the meanings of the words based on their knowledge of the base word and affix meaning, and then compare their definitions to a dictionary definition. Students can also apply the words by using them in descriptive sentences.
Spin (or Roll), Read, DISCUSS, Cover
I've got the word "discuss" in all capital letters because this is the part of the activity that really supports building students' word knowledge.
Spin (roll), read, cover activities are fairly straightforward and great for practicing reading words with different spelling patterns. By adding in a DISCUSS step, students can use this same game to build their vocabulary with prefix and suffix activities.
What You Need
A game board: a simple one pager with a 6 x 4 table with one word that has a prefix, suffix, or both in each space and a number 1-6 below each column (or larger if you'd like to have more words on the game board)
Dice or a spinner
Something to cover the words (markers, chips, a crayon...etc.)
How to Play
Students spin the spinner or roll the die. When they spin a number, they go to that column and select a word to read aloud. Now here is the most important part! After reading their word aloud, they discuss with their partner what affixes are in the word and how the affixes affected the meaning of the base word.
Spin a 5 and select the word 'teaching'.
Prefix: -
Base word: teach
Suffix: -ing
Student Discussion: -ing means the action is happening now so someone is teaching, or sharing knowledge and information, right now.
To extend this work, students can also practice using these words in descriptive sentences.
After the discussion, the student will cover the word with their marker and it is the partner's turn to spin/roll, read, discuss, and cover.
Building Words Card Decks
Students practice building words from a deck of cards and discuss or write about how the affixes affect the meaning of the base words. For this activity, students need three separate decks of cards: a deck of prefixes, a deck of suffixes, and a deck of base words.
Students select a base word and then draw prefixes and suffixes to see how many different words they can make from that one base word. As they build words with different prefixes and suffixes, they discuss or record the different words and their meanings, paying attention to how the affixes change the meaning of each base word.
Here's two quick examples:
Students draw the word 'use.'
They then begin pulling prefixes and suffixes to see how many words they can build.
Useless, useful, reuse, using, used, nonuse, reused, reusing, and so on!
Students draw the word 'view'
They then pull prefixes and suffixes and create: review, reviewed, reviewing, viewed, viewing, preview, previewed, previewing, etc.!
As they build these words, they record the meanings and/or discuss the different meanings of each one. They can then compare the meanings they recorded based on their knowledge of the base word and affixes with a definition in a dictionary.
Breaking Down Words
This prefix and suffix activity is essentially the opposite of building words! Students are given a constructed word and break it apart, separating the prefix, base word, and suffix. They record/discuss the meaning of each part of the word and write a definition for the word based on its parts. (As I said above previous sections, an easy extension is to then use the word in a descriptive sentence--always a good idea to apply our word knowledge to writing!)
For example:
Students are given the following word list:
unbreakable
unhelpful
reviewed
They then break each word down and write its meaning based on the word parts:
unbreakable = un (not) + break + able (capable of) = not able to be broken
unhelpful = un (not) + help + ful (full of) = not full of help
reviewed = re (again) + view + ed (happened in the past) = looked at something again in the past
Word Matrices
Morphology word matrices can be implemented in two different ways: 1) with a teacher-made word matrix that students build words from or 2) with students creating word matrices themselves.
Example:
You can see in the example above that the base word goes in the center of the matrix, in front of the base word are the prefixes that can go with the base word, and after the base word are the possible suffixes. Students then use the word matrix to build as many words as they can.
reread
rereads
rereading
unreadable
readable
reader
reads
reading
read
The above word matrix is a fairly simple one. Some words can have multiple prefixes or suffixes added to them (think: frighteningly). Below is an example of a more complex word matrix.
I genuinely enjoy creating these matrices myself! I find it so fun to see how many different words can come from one base word, just by adding different combinations of affixes. And (speaking from personal experience now) students get equally excited as they realize just how much their vocabulary is expanded from a few small word parts put together!
A Final Note on Application
When implementing these activities, the critical part of the activity, the part that supports students' vocabulary growth the most, is the discussion--discussing the meaning of the word parts , and how, when put together, these parts make words with different but related meanings. Without this element, these activities can turn into mindless busy work! We want students' brains to be engaged in thinking about these words, their parts, and their meanings.
I hope these activities bring some joy, engagement, and vocabulary growth to your classrooms today!
Looking for ways to make your morphology activities even more engaging? Check out these holiday themed prefix and suffix activities!
