Word Wednesday - Affixes and Roots Bingo

Remember this vintage Bingo game Princess found in an antique store?

She knew she wanted it in her classroom.  However she did not want it relegated to a party game.  She had read that students who know and understand root words and their prefixes and suffixes did significantly better in not only standardized test skills, but also overall reading skills.  She asked me to create a bingo game for word study.  We came up with this.  This is not your grandmother's bingo!

Each day her class would take some time to spin the cage and get one or two bingo balls.  They would then mark off the square they drew and discuss the affix or root.  She was pleasantly surprised how much fun her class had trying to come up with words that had the prefix, suffix or root.  They often even referred to it if a word came up during the day.  She said it was very interesting to watch them try to figure out the meanings of the affixes by listening to words in which they occurred.

We decided to make two boards.  Here is the grades 3 through 5 board and the kindergarten through grade 3 board.  You can download and print theme here and here.

Here is the breakdown of affixes and roots by grade level that we used to help create the boards.  Because this was an enrichment activity, we included several grades on a board.

Princess rewarded her class with an extra few minutes of recess or a favorite game when they completed a Bingo.  However, she said they really enjoyed the bingo game more than the reward.