Words are like legos - they can have interchangeable parts. In this unit students will study the construction of words including roots, prefixes and suffixes. Students will also explore how to modify words to make them possessive, a different part of speech and adjust to signify singular and plural. Understanding the basic building blocks of words, will increase students’ vocabulary, improve their spelling and add strategies for decoding unfamiliar words.

This unit not only builds students' vocabulary, it also enables students to explore how words are related, in meaning, sound and construction. Learners will also discover some of the ways words are constructed using derivational root words, prefixes, suffixes, and compound words. Students will also learn strategies we use to shorten words and phrases like acronyms and abbreviations.

Second grade phonics covers more advanced rules that build upon kids' foundational reading skills, such as vowel pairs (ai, ee, ea, oo), long and short vowels, and the silent E. This guided lesson covers these three areas in order to enhance kids' skills with decoding more challenging texts. You can boost reading fluency further by printing the phonics worksheets that go with this lesson.

As students become more sophisticated writers, they begin to understand that words have different “jobs” in a sentence. These jobs can be thought of as parts of speech. In this word study unit, students will learn about the work that transition words, prepositions, verbs, adverbs and adjectives do. Students will also explore how certain kinds of words work together, like verbs and adverbs.

Learning common constructions for words is one way that third graders can get traction on their spelling and reading comprehension skills. This guided lesson in word structure introduces kids to the idea that most words are made up of smaller words, and provides opportunities to apply this learning with practical examples. For more printable practice with word structure, check out our recommended worksheets.

Knowing how to read short O words like hot, pot, and top takes practice. This guided lesson can help kids master the short O sound. Kids will be taught to identify the short O within common sight words, which will boost reading fluency. Don't forget to check out the short O printables at the end of the lesson to continue the learning.

Understanding how to pronounce the short I sound, such as in pill and film, is important for first graders encountering words they don't know. This guided lesson teaches kids all about the Short I sound, and provides lots of examples of short I words. Targeted practice like this helps to reinforce kids' understanding of short vowel sounds and boosts phonemic awareness, upon which lifelong reading skills are based.

Digraphs are combinations of two letters that together make just one sound. These extra special words are very common but can be tricky, as kids typically learn that letters make unique sounds. Practice this skill with these learning resources now!

Bag, cat and cap are all examples of short A words that kindergarteners will be learning to read this year. You can support this learning with a guided exploration of the short A sound. Kids will be taught how to identify the short A within text, in addition to the corresponding sound. Check out our short A printables for more phonics practice.

Learning parts of speech will help third graders to develop a deeper understanding of written language. This guided lesson teaches about adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections, which is the glue holding most sentences together. Designed by our team of teachers and curriculum experts, the content in this lesson provides instruction and examples that will support kids as they learn these important words.

Verbs do a lot of the heavy lifting in good writing. Understanding the different kinds of verbs and how they are used enables students to write more compellingly. Students will explore how tenses work and how they must agree with and sometimes work together with other words in the sentence. Students will also learn about adverbs, the "sister" part of speech that enhance, or modify, verbs.

The mysterious comma is arguably the trickiest form of punctuation, which is why assigned it it’s own unit in 5th grade. As students become more sophisticated writers they craft more complex sentences. They incorporate independent phrases and clauses, generate compound sentences, and utilize transition words to combine ideas - and the exercises in this unit will teach them how to use commas correctly in each scenario.

This guided lesson focuses on short U, as in jump, sun, and duck. Kids learn how to recognize and read this sound, then practice with short U words. Breaking up lessons based on vowel sounds helps kids chunk concepts together, easing retention and boosting phonics skills. Once you are through with the lesson, consider downloading some of the accompanying short U printables for extended learning.

When students learn the patterns and structures of words they become word wizards! They are able to more fluently convert a word from one part of speech to another, adjust the meaning, or translate a word from singular to plural (or vice versa). In this set of activities students will build on their knowledge of word structure and practice adding prefixes and suffixes, changing tenses and using contractions.

Words work together in a sentence, each one performing a different task. By fifth grade, students have become more adept readers and writers and they are familiar with the basic parts of speech. The activities in this unit revisit some of the basics and also add depth to their existing understanding. Students will engage in such topics as superlative adjectives, correlative conjunctions and prepositional phrases, to name a few.