Prefixes and Suffixes Matching Activity

Use these Prefix + Root word + Suffix cards in many ways. It contains thirty sets of Big Words which are really root words with their matching prefixes and suffixes. These are words like: disagreement, unacceptable, indefinitely, maladjusted, unemployment, disrespectful, etc. The prefixes used are: un, dis, mal, pre, in, re and inter. The suffixes used are: ful, able, ed, ment, ly, and ible.

Ways to use them:

Use the cards as they are (already matched up) in your word walls.

Sorting Game: Cut out each prefix, root word and suffix and group them into three groups - prefixes only, root words only, and suffixes only. Then students can take turns to pull out a root word from the root word pile and match it correctly to a prefix from the prefix pile and to a suffix from the suffix pile.

Say It, Keep It: Use the cards with the prefix + root word + suffix intact for this game. A caller will keep all of the cards in the deck, pick the first card and read the root word out loud (without showing it to the other players). He can ask the others to name either a prefix or suffix that would match the root word. The first player to name it gets to keep the card. Then the caller picks another card and this process is repeated until all of the cards are used up. The player with the most cards wins the game!

These cards are created in two different sizes. The original set has 6 words per page and the larger set has 4 words per page. The small set will save you ink and paper but many teachers have indicated to me that they preferred to have a larger set to make a bulletin board display. So, that's why I added the larger version.