Saturday, October 10, 2009

The Suffix –less

In California, one of the 2nd grade language arts standards is prefixes and suffixes. Students are required to know how a word can be changed by adding a prefix or suffix. There are quite a few that they need to know so we start on that instruction at the very beginning of the year.

This past week I introduced “-less”. As with most affixes, once you teach it to 7 year olds, they add it to everything. After showing them “homeless”, “painless”, and “careless” hands started popping up on the carpet showing me that they were ready to give it a try.

After “dogless”, “catless”, and “goldfishless” I stopped them before they went through all the pets. I showed them a few more, “harmless” and “penniless”. More hands popped up to offer “runless” and “boneless”. Oh, good, we got one. After a few more explanations, they got better - “boneless”, “shirtless”, and “friendless”.

As I added the new ones to our chart, one lone hand remained. As I called on the student, “hairless” was added. Of course, that is a great example using the suffix '”-less” so I added it to the chart. While I did so, we talked about the meaning, “without hair”. This caused my entire class to roll around on the floor laughing.

school 001

What is it about that word “hairless”? It is a funny word. For an adult, there are many images that it conjures up and most of them are funny. What I wonder is what little kids are visualizing when they hear that word.

Are there any words that make you laugh?

9 comments:

  1. I can't think of any words that automatically make me laugh, but here's a partial list of the ones that make preschoolers roll on the floor:

    underpants
    poop
    toilet paper
    flush
    pee . . .

    Well, you get the idea.

    I have no idea what "hairless" is all about unless they're thinking of their funny bald daddies.

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  2. unitard
    weisenheimer
    usurper
    bubonic
    luscious
    ejaculate
    macabre
    curmudgeon
    goiter
    cantankerous
    episiotomy
    dastardly
    spork
    uvula
    bunion
    sasquatch
    girth
    coitus interruptus
    neanderthal
    nincompoop
    persnickety

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  3. smidgen : )
    I think that is a funny word!
    You know what else I think today?
    I think you are a great teacher.
    I am glad your kids have you Pumpkin! Super duper glad : )

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  4. I just love Jason's list!

    My word is "moist" because my daughter hates it so much. I try to work it into conversation whenever I can. Moist!

    I'm evil like that!

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  5. Teacher, teacher!! Jason took all the funny ones. ::pouts in the corner::

    ReplyDelete