Scholastic, Gamequarium and University of Missouri's eThemes sites contain various free computer games your third-grader can use to review and test his skills on prefixes and suffixes. Most of the games have the student match the word definition to the correct root and suffix or prefix. Examples include Scholastic's Short Circuit, which asks the student to give the meaning for the prefix or suffix. Gamequarium's Jeopardy allows the student to choose the meaning of the prefix or suffix as a category. Rotate the games and sites to keep the challenge fresh.
Reading Resource has some printable games you can use with your third grade students. Print out the prefix and suffix cards or card stock and use the blank cards to add some root words. Have students connect the roots with various prefixes and suffixes to create words. The site also has a game for use with checkers and a checkerboard. Print out the cards and place them on the board; let the students review as they play. PreK-8.com has other printable games and worksheets your students can use for free.
Use business card stock to create your own prefix and suffix game. Use prefixes pre-, re- and post-, pro- and anti- to contrast word meanings such as "preview" and "review" or "preseason" and "postseason." Challenge the students to use suffixes -er and -est to make comparative words such as "smaller" and "smallest," "faster" and "fastest" and "bigger" and "biggest." Students can think of other roots to use these prefixes and suffixes with to create comparing and contrasting words. Invite students to make sentences that use the words appropriately.
Create three different sets of cards that include prefixes and suffixes in one set, definitions in the second set and roots to use with the prefixes and suffixes in the third set. Challenge the student to create words with the cards and use the definitions to decode the word meaning. Alternatively, define the word and challenge the student to use the cards to figure out how to combine the cards to create the correct answer.