Root Words and Word Families

Find the root word in unhelpful, and build a family: help, helper, helpful, helpless.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 15

The root word is the main part of a word. Prefixes and suffixes are added to it.
To find the root, take off the prefix and the suffix. Unhelpful: take off un, take off ful, and the root is help.
Words with the same root are a word family, and their meanings connect: help, helper, helpful, helpless, unhelpful.
Careful! Some words just look alike. Helmet starts with h e l, but it has nothing to do with help.
If a suffix changed the spelling, change it back: hoping comes from hope, and happiness comes from happy.

Georgia's K-12 English Language Arts Standards:

3.L.V.2.a — Deconstruct words using common roots, root words, and affixes to determine meaning. (I)
3.L.V.2.c — Construct words using common roots, root words, and affixes. (C)