Teaching Greek and Latin Roots
Some links in this post may be affiliate links. This means that if you click on them, I may make a tiny commission, at no extra cost to you. For more information, please visit our Privacy Policy.
A lot of our English words come from Greek and Latin roots. In order to increase our vocabulary, it is helpful to study the origins of our language.
In the past, we have used Vocabulary From Classical Roots for our kids. It has been a very effective way for them to learn a variety of different words and their roots through a series of workbook/textbook style books. While effective, it wasn’t very exciting.
Now, I don’t think all learning has to be fun, but if it can be both fun and educational, that is something to cause some excitement in both parents and kids!
So, when I was given the opportunity to view Word Up! from Compass Classroom starring Dwane Thomas of Visual Latin, I was super excited to give it a try. (I did receive a free copy of Word Up! and will receive a small payment if you purchase the product through my link. The opinions expressed are my own.)
Review of Word Up!
Word Up! includes 10 lessons, each with a Greek and Latin root. Dwane Thomas stars as the show host,
the Latin expert,
and the Greek expert.
My daughter and I watched it together and found it to be rather entertaining. (And we learned some new words!) Dwane Thomas’ characters are humorous and they play off of the fact that they are the same person, but different characters, making the show fun.
After watching the video lesson, there are online learning games to reinforce the newly learned words. You can track your student’s progress as they work through the games.
First, are flashcards where you can flip each card over to see its definition.
In the Learn tab, the student is given the definition of one of the words and asked to choose which is the proper word.
In the writing section, the student is given a definition and asked to type the word.
They are given a chance to test their listening and spelling skills in the spelling tab.
On the test, the student is given a variety of multiple choice, fill in the blank, True/False, and more.
And finally, we come to the fun games! There is a matching game to match the words with their definitions. This is timed so you can see how you did in comparison to other students.
The Gravity game is my favorite. You must type in the correct word before the asteroid hits. As you advance in the levels, the asteroids fall faster!
I like how the Word Up! program uses a lot of different types of learning to help cement the words into memory.
My daughter and I both had a fun time watching the videos and learning the words.
Be sure to Pin this for later!
