Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mrs. Richards, and today I'm going to be teaching you spelling.

Today, we are exploring more prefixes.

I'm so excited to teach you spelling today.

I love spelling.

You know why? Because spelling is about exploring words, where they come from, what they mean, why they have those letters in that order, and that is so interesting.

So, let's get started.

Today, we are going to explore key vocabulary, investigate and generate rules, and set spelling words.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, a pencil, and your brain.

Pause the video if you need to, and go and get those resources.

Key vocabulary.

Here are some key terms we're going to need to be able to use in today's lesson.

One, prefix.

A prefix is a group of letters at the beginning of a word that change its meaning.

Two, root.

The word onto which the prefix is attached.

Three, adjective.

A describing word.

My turn, your turn.

Prefix.

Prefix.

Root.

Root.

Adjective.

Adjective.

Let's practise.

Which term do we use to describe a group of letters at the beginning of a word that change its meaning? Yeah, good try.

Prefix.

What term do we use to describe a word onto which the prefix is attached? Well done.

Root.

What term do we use for a describing word? Good.

An adjective.

So, let's look at this word prefix in more detail and explore exactly what a prefix is and how it might change the meaning and the spelling of a root word.

Here's something really cool.

Look at the word prefix.

We're going to explore the word prefix to understand its makeup a little bit more.

Prefix is made up of a prefix, pre, and a root word, fix.

Yeah, a prefix contains a prefix.

A pre is the prefix that means before, and it comes from Latin.

Fix is our root word, and the root word here means attach, and yeah, it comes from Latin.

So, when we form this term prefix, it's made up of a prefix itself, pre, and a root word, fix, before and attach, that's because we attach a prefix onto the beginning of a word before the first letter.

Okay, let's investigate rules and generate some rules.

So, what do these words mean, and what might they have in common? Here are our words.

Legible.

My turn, your turn.

Legible.

Legible.

Legible means able to be read.

The handwriting was legible.

Next one, legal.

Legal.

Good.

Legal means allowed by law.

It is legal to drive a car at age 17.

What we're going to do is we're going to add a prefix onto the beginning of these words and look at how it might change the spelling and the meaning of these words.

Before we do that, what two things do these words have in common? Pause the video now and tell yourself what two things do these words have in common.

Okay, so both of these words begin with the letter l, and both of these words are adjectives.

They're describing words.

So, let's explore a prefix.

Il.

My turn, your turn.

Il.

Il.

Il means not.

Il is our prefix.

It's going to be attached to the beginning of these root words, and it means not.

Let's come up with an action to describe our prefix and what it means.

I've got one, not.

So, we can say the prefix and do the action.

Il.

Il.

My turn, your turn.

Il.

Well done.

Okay.

So legible meant able to be read.

Let's see what happens when we add our prefix.

Legible becomes illegible, and the meaning changes.

It no longer means able to be read.

Illegible now means not able to be read.

Here, the spelling has changed, and the prefix has changed.

Let's have a look at the next one, legal.

Legal meant allowed by law.

When we add our prefix il, the word becomes illegal, and the meaning changes: not allowed by law.

So in these words, when we added a prefix, our spelling changed.

By adding il, our word now has two l's, and the meaning of our words change too.

In fact, it became the opposite of what they meant before.

Able to be read became not able to be read.

Allowed by law became not allowed by law.

So what we've learnt so far? Prefix is a group of letters at the beginning of a word that change its meaning.

When we add the prefix il, it means not, and it's added to a word beginning in l.

Show me what you've learnt so far.

I'm going to say the prefix, and I want you to do the action.

Il.

Well done.

Which prefix on the screen means not? Point now to the prefix that means not.

Good.

What did our other prefix mean? Pre meant? That's right, before.

Let's come up with an action for pre.

Il means not.

Pre means before.

Pre means before.

My turn, your turn.

Pre.

Okay.

Point to the action for il meaning not.

Good.

Point to the action for pre meaning before.

Well done.

Okay, let's explore some more words, and let's explore what happens when we add some other prefixes.

Here are our words.

Mature, mature.

Mature means fully grown.

The tree was mature.

Polite.

Polite.

Polite means respectful.

The man was polite because he said, "Thank you." Let's add a prefix onto the beginning of these words.

Hmm, I wonder what type of words they are.

Pause the screen.

Can you work out what these words have in common? What word type or word class are they? Good.

These words are both adjectives.

Before, we were looking at a prefix added to the beginning of an adjective.

And here we're doing the same.

We're adding a prefix onto the beginning of an adjective.

So, let's explore the prefix im.

My turn, your turn.

Im.

Im means not.

My turn, your turn.

Im means not.

Well done.

So, mature becomes immature, and the meaning changes from fully grown to not fully grown.

Polite becomes impolite, and the meaning changes from respectful to not respectful.

So what's happening here? We've got a spelling change and a meaning change.

When we add the prefix im meaning not onto the word mature, we then have two m's near the beginning of these words, and the meaning changes.

In fact, it becomes the opposite.

When we add im onto the beginning of polite, the spelling changes and the meaning changes.

It becomes its opposite.

So now we have two prefixes that mean not.

A prefix is a group of letters at the beginning of a word that change its meaning.

Im also means not, and it attaches to a word beginning with m or p.

So, show me what you've learnt so far.

Point on your screen to the prefix or prefixes that mean not.

Okay, how many prefixes did you point? Yeah, you should have pointed to two prefixes on the screen because we have two prefixes now that mean exactly the same.

They both mean not.

Il means not, and im means not.

How about that last one, what did that one mean? Pre? Well done.

Pre means before.

How do we choose between these two prefixes that both have the same meaning? When I'm writing, I want to write not something, not legal, not mature, not polite.

How do I know which one to use? Do you remember the pattern that we spotted so far? Im is attached to a root word beginning with m or p.

Il is attached to a root word beginning with l.

Look closely.

Here, the last letter in the prefix can be the same as the first letter in the root word.

Il ends in an l and is attached to root words beginning with l.

Im ends in m and is attached to root words beginning with m and p.

Let's try these.

I'm going to read a sentence to you, and I want you to work out which of the three words at the bottom of the screen would complete the sentence.

The words are prefix, adjective, root.

I'm going to read the sentence, then I want you to pause the video and say the sentence aloud to yourself with the correct word in each gap.

A hmm is a group of letters that we can add to the beginning of a word hmm.

Pause now and have a go.

Well done.

A prefix is a group of letters that we can attach to the beginning of a root word.

Well done.

Next one.

A hmm has meaning.

It changes the meaning of the hmm word.

Which term below would complete the sentence? Prefix, adjective, root.

Pause the video now, say the sentence aloud to yourself with the correct terms in each gap.

Well done.

A prefix has meaning.

It changes the meaning of the root word.

With some prefixes, the first letter of the root word can help us decide which prefix to use.

Here are examples.

Legal, illegal.

Mature, immature.

Let's explore this rule even further.

Here are our words.

Responsible.

My turn, your turn.

Responsible.

Responsible means reliable.

The child was very responsible.

Next word, visible.

Visible.

Visible means able to be seen.

The house was visible.

What would happen if we wanted to change the meaning of these words? If instead of saying the child was responsible, we wanted to say that they weren't, they were not responsible.

What prefix could we add that means not? So far, we've got il, which we add or attach onto root words beginning with l, and we've got im, which we attach to root words beginning with m or p.

But here my root word begins with r.

Here, we have to use the prefix ir.

Ir also means not.

So responsible becomes irresponsible, and the meaning changes from reliable to not reliable.

The same happens as before.

Here, where we add ir onto the beginning of responsible, it's now spelt with two r's, and the meaning becomes the opposite to the meaning that was there before.

Let's have a look at the next one, visible.

How would I change it in meaning if I wanted to say that something was not visible? I couldn't use il.

It doesn't begin with l.

I couldn't use im.

It doesn't begin with m or p.

I couldn't use ir.

It doesn't begin with r.

Here, and for all other letters, I usually use the word in.

So visible becomes invisible, and the meaning changes from able to be seen to not able to be seen.

So, with some prefixes, the first letter of the root word can help us decide which prefix to use.

And when our word doesn't begin with an l or an m or a p or an r, then we often use the prefix im.

All of these prefixes mean? Not.

So, show me what you've learnt.

How many prefixes here mean not? Well done, let's have a look.

Good, there are four prefixes here that mean not, and our other prefix pre meant before.

Okay, let's have a look at our spelling words.

I'm going to explain each word in turn.

After I've explained the word, I want you to pause the video and write it down.

Spelling number one, illegible.

That handwriting is illegible.

Illegible has the prefix il, so the word is now written with two l's.

Look out.

It's also got ible on the end, I-B-L-E.

Write it down.

Go.

Spelling number two, illegal.

Doing that is illegal.

You can see it's got the il prefix, so it's now spelt with two l's.

Write it down.

Go.

Spelling number three, immature.

Her behaviour was very immature.

This has got the prefix im, so the word is now spelt with two m's.

Go.

Spelling number four, impolite.

Her behaviour was very impolite because she didn't say, "Please." This has got the im prefix.

Go.

Spelling number five, irresponsible.

His behaviour was irresponsible.

This has got the ir prefix, I-R, so the word is now spelt with two r's.

Have a look at that ending ible.

Just like we had in illegible, we have that same ending in irresponsible.

Go.

Spelling number six, irreplaceable.

This has got the prefix ir, so that spelling now has two r's.

Have a look here at the ending.

Before, we've had two words that end in ible.

Here, this adjective ends in able, A-B-L-E.

Go.

Spelling number seven.

She was insincere because I couldn't trust her.

This begins with the prefix in.

Have a look at the ss sound within this word.

It's spelt with an s at the beginning and a c halfway through.

Go.

Spelling number eight, invisible.

The ghost was invisible.

This starts with the prefix in meaning not, and it has ible on the end, I-B-L-E.

Go.

Spelling number nine, preview.

Remember, pre is the prefix meaning before.

Preview.

I went to a preview of the film.

Go.

Spelling number 10, preschool.

Preschool is the nursery that children attend before they go to school.

Have a look at that spelling of school, S-C-H.

Write it down.

Go.

Well done, everybody, for today.

I really enjoyed the lesson.

I hope you did too.

Remember, practise at home, that's how you get better with spellings, and I'll see you next time, bye!.