Multisensory Monday: Flower Petal Suffix Sort

Spring is in the air! Help your students grow into better readers and spellers with this fun word sort activity!

When adding the suffix -ed to a base word, there are three distinct pronunciations, yet the spelling of this suffix remains the same. This suffix is often added to a verb to indicate the past tense form of the word. Students often misspell this suffix because of the sound differentiation. Some students will also mispronounce it when they are decoding words during oral reading. For these reasons, it is important to teach the different sounds of this suffix.

/t/ I walked to the store.

/d/ I spelled my words.

/ed/ I planted the flowers.

Generally, we add a spoken syllable /ed/ when the suffix -ed is added to a base word that ends with the letter “t” or “d.” (planted, rented, ended, departed, needed, pleaded)

Materials:

• Construction paper
• Tape or glue
• Scissors

Preparation:

Prepare cut flower petals with words written from each sound category for the suffix -ed:

/t/   jumped   camped   shopped   walked   brushed   fixed

/d/   sailed   played   stormed   farmed   smelled   turned

/ed/   hunted   wanted   rusted   ended   acted   needed

Make it Multisensory:

Students take turns “picking” a word, reading it, using it in a sentence, and then placing it on the correct pre-made flower. You can extend the activity by having students create a pattern with their petal colors.

This can be done individually where students glue their petals to their flowers, or you can laminate the pieces and save them for future use as a file-folder activity.

Written by Julie Palermo.

Julie is a Reading Interventionist and Brainspring tutor.

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