Greek and Latin Roots for Grade 6: Turn, Breathe, Hold, Air and Name

Remember from earlier grades

In Grade 4 you learned roots like port, rupt, struct, spect, dict, aud and vis, and Greek parts like tele, micro, bio, geo, graph and therm. In Grade 5 you added duc, ject, mit, pend, terr, voc, manu, ped and fract, and Greek hydr, chron, astr, cycl, logy, dem, cracy and sphere. Grade 6 adds roots that unlock words in your science units (biodiversity, flight, electricity, space) and in social studies.

Let's start with a puzzle

What do these words have in common: reverse, vertical, convert, vertebrate?

They all have the Latin root vert/vers, which means turn. Reverse = turn back. Convert = turn into something else. And a vertebrate is an animal with a backbone. The small bones in a backbone are called vertebrae, and they let your body turn and bend.

Roots in your Grade 6 subjects

• Flight: An aerodynamic shape (aero air + dyn power) moves easily through air, which is why paper airplanes with pointed noses often fly farther.
• Electricity: electr comes from the Greek word for amber, a golden fossil tree resin. Long ago, people noticed that rubbing amber made it attract small, light things like bits of straw: that was static electricity. A generator (gen = produce) produces electricity.
• Biodiversity: Vertebrates have backbones; invertebrates (in- = not), like insects, worms and snails, don't. A butterfly goes through metamorphosis (change of shape). Respiration is how living things use oxygen.
• Social studies: Canada is a constitutional monarchy: the King is the head of state, and elected governments make the laws. Monarch = mon(o) (one) + arch (ruler).