Word Study Activities for Third Grade

Word Hunt

With your students, brainstorm a list of suffixes the class has studied such as "-ed," "-ing," "-s." Tell the class that you will be going on a treasure hunt to find as many words with these suffixes as possible. Have students choose a partner for this activity. Instruct students to use their library books or the current reading text to locate words with the listed suffixes. Each group must write down the words found and the page number on which the word is located. Offer a sticker or other small prize for groups that find at least 15 words.

Introduce the concept of "rime," or word ending, and "onset," or beginning sound of words, in this activity. Give each student a small dry-erase board and marker. Write a rime on the board, such as "-amp." Explain that students will have 30 seconds to brainstorm as many real words with this ending as they can. Students must write the words on their boards. Each student will receive one point for each correctly spelled word. Repeat this process with more word endings: "-ent," "-ind," "-ong," and so on. The player who earns most points wins.

Create a deck of cards with 25 yellow and 25 blue index cards for each set of three to four players. On the yellow cards, write onsets, or word beginnings, including initial consonants, blends and digraphs. On the blue index cards, write rimes, or word endings. One player deals three blue cards to each player and stacks the remaining blue cards in the center of the table. The yellow cards are stacked in the center in a separate stack. Players take turns drawing a yellow card. If it can be combined with a blue card to make a real word, the player lays the two cards in front of him, draws another blue card, and play continues with the next person. If it cannot be used, the player keeps the yellow card and play continues with the next player. When all the cards have been used, the player with the most matches wins.

Make index cards with suffixes and prefixes that the class has studied. Break the class into groups of three to four students. Each group will need a deck of prefix/suffix cards. The deck is placed in the center of the group face-down. Students take turns flipping over the top card so that the entire group can see it. The first student to call out a word with that prefix/suffix gets that card. The student with the greatest number of cards at the end wins. As an alternative, have students call out the meaning of the prefix/suffix or make up sentences with them.