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School SCRABBLE® Activities: Issue #17

Educators and parents have been asking us for more School SCRABBLE® activities. Here they are! Every two weeks, a new page will be posted. We welcome your questions and suggestions. Send them to Cindy McCaffery.

Are you "out" of it?

May 7-18, 2001

The ability to find prefixes among the tiles on the rack and connect them to root words can greatly increase a player's score. In fact, there are over 1,000 words that begin with the common prefix out-. Write the following words on the chalkboard:

outbleat

outdrive

outbike

outlaugh

[cartoon of bike]

outpreach

outfield

outdance

outside

Tell students that at least one of the words is not a real word. Discuss each word, asking students what they think it means. With a show of hands, have them vote on whether the word is real or not. Then, call on a volunteer to find and read each word's definition in The Official SCRABBLE® Players Dictionary, Third Edition for words with up to eight letters and Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Edition) for words with more than eight letters. Classroom dictionaries may not contain all the words. "Outbike" is the only nonword.

Have students work in small groups. Challenge groups, without using a dictionary, to come up with as many words as they can that contain the prefix out-. When they are done, have them share their lists with the rest of the class. Look up any disputed word in the dictionary.

Suggest students keep a list of words containing the prefix out- in their word journals. Remind them to look for the prefix out- when they play SCRABBLE® game.

[cartoon of journal]

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Browse our archives for back issues from 2000 (issues #1-8) and 2001 (issue #9 and on).

HASBRO is the owner of the registered SCRABBLE® trademark in the United States and Canada. © 2008 HASBRO. All rights reserved. "SCRABBLE® Brand Crossword Game" is the proper way to refer to this unique group of word games and related properties marketed by HASBRO. "SCRABBLE®" is not a generic term. To use it as such is not only misleading but also does injustice to the company responsible for the trademark's longtime popularity. All we ask is that when you mean SCRABBLE® Brand Crossword Game, you say so. 

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