Broken Hearts Suffix Game

Tip of the Month
Written By Linda

Looking for a quick word work activity that’s easy to prep and big on engagement? This simple heart-themed game gets students building words, talking about them, and actually enjoying morphology practice.

 

Directions:

  1. Sort heart pieces by color.

  2. Find the base word.

  3. Build words by matching the suffix puzzle piece to the base word. 

  4. Write the word on the chart. (Have a copy of the chart for each player, or one per partnership.)

  5. Read the new word to your partner.

Download the Worksheet
 

Challenge: 

  • For added reinforcement, have students use the new word in a sentence of seven or more words to support oral language and sentence development.

 


Variations

With simple adjustments, this activity can be adapted to meet a range of student needs, targeting phonics, morphology, or decoding while remaining engaging and effective. For example,

  •    Make the puzzle pieces contractions.

  •    Make the puzzle pieces syllables

  •    Make the puzzle pieces a base word with a prefix.

  •    Take away the color coding support by making multiple words share the same color, but not the same shape.

Download the Contractions Worksheet
 
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Linda

Linda Szakmary has five decades of experience working as a classroom teacher, a district curriculum writer, a district facilitator of K-5 writing, and as a county K-8 literacy coach. She now works for Sullivan and Orange-Ulster BOCES as a content specialist. A poetry advocate and a lover of words and children’s literature, she has been a presenter at several state-wide conferences on vocabulary and writing. Currently, she is working with the staff developers of Mossflower to study intermediate vocabulary instruction within a reading workshop. Linda lives in Stone Ridge, NY where she enjoys gardening, yoga, reading, and rooting for the Yankees. You can often find her on a beach searching for sea glass.

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