Activities With Prefixes
Anyone else remember dreading the grammar block when you were young? It was just so boring! We have a way to get your students excited and asking when they GET to learn grammar! Start with these activities with prefixes!
Interactive notebooks are the fix! The activities are hands-on and allow time for creativity. With this activity prefixes have never been so much fun! This Prefix Flower activity is designed to not only be fun, but also to help students understand the meaning of prefixes and how they can change the meaning of words.
Start by identifying the root word.
Before introducing prefixes, it’s important to first identify the root word. This is the base word that the prefix will be added to. Once students understand the concept of root words, they can begin to think about the meaning of the word.
Discuss the meaning of the prefix AND how it changes the meaning of the word.
It’s helpful if you don’t overwhelm the students with too many prefix examples at once. At the same time, you need to show more than one example so they start to understand that there are different prefixes. Also, that a prefix can completely change the meaning of a word. You should aim for 3-4 prefix examples per lesson.
For example, the prefix “un-” means “not” or “opposite of.” So, in the word “unhappy,” the prefix “un-” changes the meaning of the word from “happy” to “not happy.”
Brainstorm New Words:
Encourage students to come up with other words that use the same prefix. Discuss how the prefix changes the meaning of those words as well. Students can better understand the meaning of one word and how it relates to other words with the same prefix. In this way, studying prefixes can drastically increase students’ vocabulary.
Make it fun!
The prefix flower project is a fun and engaging way to teach prefixes to elementary students. The prefix is already in the middle and the meaning is on the leaf.
1. As a class, brainstorm a list of words that can be used as root words for each prefix. As you’re writing them, be sure to:
- point out that you aren’t leaving a space between the prefix and word.
- discuss the meaning of the word and how it’s changed.
2 . Next, students will choose words to write in either Sharpie or dark marker on their own flower.
3. Then, students can lightly color over the words with crayon.
4. Finally, they will cut out and glue on another sheet of paper or in their interactive notebook to make a prefix garden.
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