Vocabulary:
A Garden of Root Words
Today's Snack: Have a handful of everybody's favorite root
vegetable - carrots! Go all-orange with a glass of orange juice.
--------------------
Supplies:
Roll of plain white
shelf paper
Colored markers |
masking tape or sticky-tack
Here's
a fun way to study root words and the connection between words that share the
same root word.
Make
a long piece of shelf paper into a garden picture by drawing the "earth" with a
long brown line. Underneath, every few inches, write a different root word,
with a few words of definition.
Here
are some, below, to get you started.
From
each root word, draw a vertical line upward over the "soil line" and draw a
flower stalk. You might use a brown marker to the soil line, and a green marker
for the plant parts that are above ground.
At
about the same height as a flower would blossom, write a word that includes
that root word, and draw flower petals around it, to show that the longer word
sprang from that root word "under ground."
Now
think of a second or third word that share that same root word, and draw one or
two more "flowers," forming a clump, showing that all of the above-ground words
are related to the same root word.
You
can draw leaves and write in additional words for each root word.
Try
to have at least 20 root words, each with at least two "flowers."
|
Root
|
Definition
|
Examples
|
|
Hydra
|
Water
|
Hydration, hydrofoil
|
|
Therm
|
Heat
|
Thermometer, thermostat
|
|
Graph
|
Write
|
Graphics, biography
|
|
Dict
|
Say
|
Dictionary, dictation
|
|
Geo
|
Earth
|
Geology, geography
|
|
Path
|
Feeling
|
Apathy, sympathy
|
|
Vit
|
Life
|
Vitamin, vitalize
|
More examples can be found in just aboyut any writing
reference book. Here are some more:
Aud (to hear, listen) - audible, auditorium
Bibl (book) - Bible, bibliography
Bio (life) - biography, biology
Chrom (color) - chromosome, monochrome
Chron (time) - chronological, synchronize
Corp (body) - corporation, corpulent
Derm (skin) - dermatology, epidermis
