Multisensory Monday: Number Root Word Match-Up

Remembering the meaning of numerical root words can be tricky, especially for struggling readers. Many times, for example, math story problems are full of long words that contain number roots (think heptagon, centimeter, millisecond, kilogram, gigabyte, etc.). If these complex words are embedded in a story problem, the student already has to jump over the first hurdle, which is to find meaning of these long words. They then must try to understand the problem, and finally plot out the solution. Yikes!

We aim to avoid this type of balancing act for our students. Try this simple multisensory activity to get those number roots memorized, so that automatic recall of these long words can take place!

Make it Multisensory

Ask students to number their paper 1-10 (or up to however many number roots you have explicitly taught them). Call out a number root (out of numerical order) and students write the root next to the number that holds that roots’ meaning. For example, if you call out “pent,” students write “pent” next to the number 5. Up the challenge by asking them to recall the number root for one-hundred, one-thousand, one-million, etc.!

After some practice, your students will be recalling number roots like champs!

*PS – If a student is typically strong in math, but weak in reading, their math may also appear as weak in some cases. Why? Because decoding the words and recalling the meaning was challenging, therefore making finding the solution very confusing!

Written by Brainspring

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