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Kindergarten · English Language Arts · Unit 11 of 16

Word Parts & Meanings

-s, -ing, un- and groups of words.

What your child practices

Practices how a small word part changes a word (-s for more than one, -ing for happening now, un- for not), grouping words by topic, opposites and same-meaning words, and naming picture parts with labels.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: KL4; KL5 · working out word meanings and sorting words into groups

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Add -s to mean more than one: dog, dogs.
  2. Add -ing for something happening now: play, playing.
  3. Words can go in groups, like doctor, teacher, farmer.

Example: Add -s to “cat”. What word do you get? cat + s. cats means more than one cat. Answer: cats

Word Parts & Meanings in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 11 of 16 in Kindergarten English Language Arts, after Talk & Listen and before Ask and Find Out.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which is an animal word?

    • rabbit
    • pencil
    • spoon

  2. Question 2

    Which word names a day of the week?

    • April
    • winter
    • Monday

  3. Question 3

    Which word means the same as “big”?

    • large
    • small
    • wet

  4. Question 4

    Add un- to “happy”. What word do you get?

    • unhappy
    • happily
    • happy

  5. Question 5

    Add -ing to “play”. What word do you get?

    • playing
    • plays
    • played

  6. Question 6

    Which word names something that grows from a seed?

    • cup
    • rock
    • flower

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