Fifth Grade Reading Activities for Word Structure & Analysis
Fifth-grade reading activities for word structure and analysis help students to comprehend contractions and complex words. By using structural analysis, a student can distinguish Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes as meaningful components of words. If the complex word can't be broken down into meaningful parts, a student can separate the word into syllables. When knitting the syllables back together, the student can pronounce the word. Word structure analysis activities should enable children to practice breaking down and combining word parts to form complex words.
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Greek and Latin Word Parts
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Conduct a three-day competition between teams of students with the goal of identifying the most words with either Greek or Latin word parts. Divide the students into groups of four to six readers. Ask each team to scour their reading assignments for words that include Greek and Latin word parts. Direct the teams to write down these words on a sheet of paper. Award a point for each word found. Have the teams share their words at the culmination of three days of competition. Add categories, such as the longest word, the word with the highest number of syllables or the most unusual word, for special recognition. Engage the children in another activity in which they coin their own complex words with Greek and Latin word parts. Pair the children into teams. Have them illustrate their invented words, and then place their words and illustrations on a bulletin board. Discuss what meaning family might pertain to their invented words. For example, biodata would fall into the same family of words as biota or biology.
Word Webs
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Divide the students into groups. Hand out a dictionary, an ample piece of chart paper, colored construction paper and different colored markers to each group. Write a frequently used Greek or Latin word root, prefix or suffix on the blackboard, and then draw a bubble around it. Write a word that uses the word part to the upper right of the first bubble, and also draw a circle around it. Draw a line from the first bubble to the second bubble. Ask students to come up with another word that includes the word part on the board. Write the word on the board, draw a bubble around it, and connect it to the original word part with a line. Repeat this procedure as each new word is suggested by students to demonstrate how to create a word web. Divide the students into groups. Ask them to create their own word webs, using a common word part and adding words they find in the dictionary or their study materials.
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Suffixes
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Discuss adjectives that can be used as compliments, such as joyful, humorous or artistic, with your students. Demonstrate how suffixes can alter a noun or verb into an adjective. The noun "friend" can be transformed into "friendly," or the verb "imagine" into "imaginative," according to the Pearson Higher Education website. Show how the "-er" and "-est" suffixes reveal comparative relationships. For example, "funny" can be modified into "funnier" or "funniest." Hand out a shield-shaped oak tag to each student. Ask the students to write their names on top of their shields. Place a stack of thesauruses on a table for every student to use. Instruct students to pencil a compliment on the shield of every classmate, forbidding the use of frequently used adjectives or the same adjective twice on one shield. Have the owners retrieve their shields when everyone is done, and trace their compliments in ink. Laminate the shields and pin them to a bulletin board.
Syllables
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Create a stack of cards, writing a syllable on each card. Discuss syllable patterns with the class. Divide the students into small groups and hand them a few syllable cards. Ask the students to string together the cards to create new words. Instruct them to check the dictionary for the meaning of the words they build, and then write them down. Have the groups share the new words they have created with the cards.
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