Pixie Van Dimple has made a new friend! Her name is Melly Morpheme and she is 14 years old. Pixie met her at school in the school library – yes! the Library!
Pixie was there looking for some more books to read – she likes fantasy and drama – have you read Pixie’s books? They are filled with rather too much drama, and adventure… Pixie flies the flag for actual books because there is nothing better than diving into a good story – a ‘page-turner’ you can’t put down..
Anyway, back to the girls.. Pixie thought Melly was really cool and they chatted excitely about what they had read and what they liked reading. Melly had this big yellow bag filled with books and Pixie spotted her standing on a chair trying to get books from a top shelf – well, it all went a bit wrong and Melly and her bag full of books toppled off the chair, thankfully into a huge red beanbag on the floor. It was really comical only because Melly roared with laughter making everyone in the Library jump – Miss Tome, the Librarian was not amused and had a word. Oh dear!
When Miss Tome went out the door to go and find a pencil sharpener, the girls started chatting – Melly and Pixie might not have spoken to each other had it not been for the fact that Pixie had raced over to stop Melly falling off the chair, but was a second too late and Melly had grabbed Pixie’s jumper and pulled her over landing on top of her in the giant red beanbag. The beginnings of a great friendship – a warning though peeps – don’t try standing on chairs in the school library or anywhere else for that matter !
Pixie was curious about Melly’s name – Morpheme – had they talked about morphemes in English? Pixie was not sure where she heard about morphemes – could have even been in the Infants classes when they were learning phonics.. Well, never mind, Melly was not called Melly Morpheme for nothing! She loved literacy and words and learning all about them – she tried explaining to Pixie but it became too confusing so Melly asked clever AI to come up with a story to help explain…
So here it is –
Melly Morpheme and the Mystery of Words
Melly Morpheme was no ordinary 14-year-old. She had a special gift—she could see the hidden building blocks inside words! With her bright red glasses and a yellow bag full of books, Melly was always ready to solve a language puzzle.
One afternoon, Melly’s best friend, Jake, ran up to her, looking puzzled.
“Melly! My little brother is learning to read, and he keeps asking me why words change. Like, how does ‘happy’ turn into ‘happily’? Or why does ‘play’ become ‘played’?”
Melly grinned. “Jake, that’s the magic of morphemes! A morpheme is the smallest part of a word that has meaning.”
Jake scratched his head. “Huh?”
Melly pulled out her notebook and flipped to a fresh page. “Okay, let’s take ‘happy.’ The word ‘happy’ means feeling good, right? But if we add ‘-ly’ to the end, it becomes ‘happily,’ which means doing something in a happy way. ‘Happy’ and ‘-ly’ are both morphemes—one is a whole word, and the other is a little piece that changes the meaning.”
Jake’s eyes widened. “Oh! So ‘play’ and ‘played’ work the same way?”
“Exactly!” said Melly. “‘Play’ is the base word, and ‘-ed’ is a morpheme that tells us it happened in the past.”
Just then, Jake’s little brother ran up, waving a book. “Melly! Why does ‘unhappy’ mean not happy?”
Melly laughed. “Great question! The ‘un-’ at the beginning is another morpheme. It means ‘not,’ so when we add it to ‘happy,’ we get ‘unhappy’—not happy.”
Jake high-fived his little brother. “Whoa, words are like puzzles!”
“Exactly!” Melly said. “And once you understand morphemes, you can unlock the meaning of so many words!”
With a new appreciation for words, Jake and his brother raced home to find more morphemes, while Melly smiled, knowing she had solved another word mystery.
Melly continued – did you know……?
- Some words have just one morpheme, like ‘cat’ or ‘jump.’
- Other words have two or more, like ‘cats’ (cat + -s) or ‘jumping’ (jump + -ing).
- Morphemes help us understand and build new words—like detectives solving a mystery!
- A morpheme is the smallest part of a word that has meaning. Some morphemes can stand alone (free morphemes), while others need to be attached to another part (bound morphemes).
Melly has a challenge for you peeps! Can you find morphemes in the words you read today? How many can you find? Here are some more examples to give you some ideas……….
- Jumping 🦘 → Two morphemes
- “Jump” = the action (free morpheme)
- “ing” = shows it’s happening now (bound morpheme)
- Rewind ⏪ → Two morphemes
- “Re” = again (bound morpheme)
- “wind” = to turn or twist (free morpheme)
- Together = “wind again”
- Playful 🎾 → Two morphemes
- “Play” = to have fun (free morpheme)
- “ful” = full of (bound morpheme)
- Together = “full of play”
- Doghouse 🐕🏠 → Two morphemes
- “Dog” = the animal (free morpheme)
- “House” = the place it lives (free morpheme)
- Together = a house for a dog
- Dislike 🚫❤️ → Two morphemes
- “Dis” = not (bound morpheme)
- “like” = to enjoy (free morpheme)
- Together = “not like”
- Helper 👩🏫 → Two morphemes
- “Help” = to assist (free morpheme)
- “er” = person who does the action (bound morpheme)
- Together = “a person who helps”
- Bookshelf 📚 → Two morphemes
- “Book” = something you read (free morpheme)
- “Shelf” = a surface to hold things (free morpheme)
- Together = “a shelf for books”
🎉 Melly suggested to Pixie that they should play a silly game..
- Let’s create silly or creative compound words using two free morphemes (e.g., “pizzashoes” 🍕👟 or “unicornclock” 🦄⏰). What do you think they came up with?
Just in case you don’t know what a compound word is – A compound word is a word made by combining two or more smaller words to create a new word with a different meaning. Each smaller word still has its own meaning, but together they mean something different.
Types of Compound Words
There are 3 kinds of compound words:
- Closed – The two words are stuck together.
- Example: toothbrush, bedroom, football
- Open – The words have a space between them but still make one word.
- Example: ice cream, post office, hot dog
- Hyphenated – The words are joined by a hyphen.
- Example: mother-in-law, check-in, well-being
The girls had so much fun talking about morphemes and making up silly words.
Pixie and Melly felt right at home in each other’s company – they chatted with each other more and more and became friends in and out of school – sometimes they met up with Lil Red and all 3 went to the park to hang out, chat and talk about ‘stuff’ – both Pixie and Lil Red had many things to talk about as we know! Pixie told Melly all about cybersecurity and circularity and Lil Red told her all about her BMX, Gran and evil Swombiewolf – they all made quite a good team!
Happy reading and playing word games!
Lots of love,
Lynn & Pixie, Lil Red and Melly Morpheme
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Lynn McAllister 