Our City, Our Words

How can adding a prefix or suffix to a root word create an entirely new word? Study a packet of resources that focuses on Greek and Latin roots, as well as different prefixes and suffixes that learners can use for easy reference.

Oh, what fun! Young logophiles and neologists create a dictionary-sounding definition for imaginary words and try to fool their classmates.

Are your students having trouble choosing the right words to communicate their point? Learners view a presentation that explore active and passive voice, redundancy, and diction through examples and definitions.

Use the Visual Thesaurus to predict the subject matter of Rick Riordan's book The Lightning Thief. A pre-reading activity encourages middle schoolers to use context clues and word meaning to discover what the book is about. After they...

Secondary etymologists assign synonyms and antonyms to six English words based on the Latin roots fin, sed, and fer. MyVocabulary.com ranks this as beginner-level, but the work is challenging. A 24-item word bank provides two acceptable...

Words derived from the Latin roots spect, sta, and vert comprise this interactive online quiz. Choose the right word from the beginning-level list on MyVocabulary.com to complete each of 12 sentences. Spelling inaccuracies count as wrong...

Words, words, words. The function of words in persuasive writing is the focus of a group activity that asks members to analyze how words advertisers use are designed to influence targeted audiences.

What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...

Here is a vocabulary worksheet in which your scholars determine the meaning of 10 words using context clues from short readings. They choose from among four words and write their answers on the blank lines at the bottom of the page. They...

Brainstorm new words for a class dictionary. In small groups, young learners read and discuss an article about how words get into dictionaries. They then develop a new word, use it in a sentence, and share their creations with their peers.