Thursday 23 January 2014

Word Study Activity - January 24

AFFIXES!!!  WHAT ARE THESE??

Many of you have probably heard of the words PREFIX AND SUFFIX.  What do they mean?

A prefix is a group of letters added to the beginning of a word (known as a root word) that changes the meaning of the word.

A suffix is also a group of letters that changes the meaning of the word, only they're added at the end of the word.

Eg.  ROOT WORD: -like-
       Add a PREFIX: un- and you have           un + like = unlike
       Add a SUFFIX: -able and you have       like + able = likeable
  
       Add both PREFIX and SUFFIX and you would have:

                      un + like + able = unlikeable

In all three cases the word meaning has changed.

Every prefix and suffix has a meaning.  The suffix -able means "the ability to do something".  In the example above, it means "the ability to like".

Can you find the meaning for un-??


This week's WORD LIST and ACTIVITIES - DUE DATE: January 30th

1.   insulator                                 
2.   symmetrical
3.   accountable                        
4.   represent                        
5.   classify
6.   geometry                           
7.   negatively                                             
8.   aboriginal                            
9.   visitation                                           
10. electrical                                              
                                                
 WORD ACTIVITY 1: SCAVENGER HUNT

In this activity you need to "hunt" words around the house with the various prefixes and suffixes in the list words.

Step 1- Get your Word Study Notebook!

Step 2- Identify the prefixes and suffixes in these list words.

Step 3 - Look all over the house for objects, materials, books and anything else you can think of to find words with the same prefix and/or suffix. Find at least 5 words for each prefix and suffix. 

Step 4 - Find out the meaning of at least one prefix and one suffix (-able is already taken!!).

HAPPY WORD HUNTING!!!

5 comments:

  1. for symmetrical does rical or ical count as a suffix

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's a tricky one because you would think the root word is symmetry, but is it?? The root word is actually "symmetric". So now what's the suffix?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not yet, Michael. We can take apart this word even further. The real root word isn't actually symmetric. There's a prefix there too. Can you figure out the prefix and the real root word??

    ReplyDelete