CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.4b

ELAKindergartenVocabulary Acquisition and Use

The Standard

Use the most frequently occurring inflections and affixes (e.g., -ed, -s, re-, un-, pre-, -ful, -less) as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word.

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students spot common beginnings and endings in words. They use those parts with the base word to work out what a new word means.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can explain that replay means play again, unhappy means not happy, and jumped means the action already happened. The student uses the word part and the base word together.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think every word ending in s means more than one, even in words like runs. They may ignore the base word or think un- and re- do not change meaning.
How to Assess It: Show pictures of a tied shoe and an untied shoe. Ask, “If tied means the laces are fastened, what does untied mean, and which word part helped you?”

Lesson moves

Give pairs base-word cards and affix cards; students build words like unhappy, replay, jumped, and cats, then match each to a picture.
Ask, “How does adding un- change happy?” Students explain orally, then draw happy and unhappy faces and label both pictures.
Play Affix Charades: one student acts out play, replay, or played, while classmates name the word and explain the changed meaning.
Read classroom labels and a lunch menu, then circle endings or beginnings that help explain words such as cups, refill, and crustless.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.4b, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

Learning progression

Mastery here sets students up for these next.

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