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What Do These Things Have in Common?
The answer might surprise (and inspire!) you.
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A- Ice cream cones
B- Post-it Notes
C- Bubble Wrap
D- Popsicles
A prefix is a letter or group of letters that is added at the start of a word to change the word’s meaning.
• The prefix re- means to do something again, as in rewrite.
• The prefix un- means not or the opposite of, as in unkind or unpack.
What to do: On a separate sheet of paper, fill in each blank below with a word that uses one of these prefixes. We’ve done the first one for you.
The next time you unwrap (opposite of wrap) a tasty Popsicle, you can thank Frank Epperson. Back in the early 1900s, Epperson was a kid living in the San Francisco Bay Area. One day, he mixed some flavored powder into a glass of soda water and stirred it with a stick. Then he forgot about the drink. When he went to bed, the drink was on the porch with the stick still in it.
In the morning, Epperson woke up to something __________ (not expected). The cold night air had turned his drink into a frozen treat with a built-in handle!
Years later, Epperson started selling his treats under the name Epsicle Ice Pops. They were later __________ (named again) Popsicles.
Pop Goes the . . . Wallpaper?
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You might think the most successful people never make mistakes. But experts say that’s __________ (not true). Popsicles are just one of many popular items that exist because someone messed up.
Take Bubble Wrap. In 1957, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes made large sheets of plastic with air bubbles. They thought people would love putting this strange bubbly paper on their walls.
They were wrong. That business was __________ (not successful). But the men didn’t give up! They __________ (considered again) what they had made. Could it be used for anything besides wallpaper?
Yes! People could use it to wrap up breakable items before moving. The bubbly plastic worked much better than newspaper to get dishes from place to place __________ (not broken). And you can __________ (use again) it over and over (if you can keep yourself from popping the bubbles).
Your Turn
There are other examples of how mistakes can lead to something better. Ice cream cones came from waffles that did not sell well. Post-it Notes were created when a scientist failed at making a superstrong glue.
So what does this mean for you? Try not to worry too much about messing up. Instead, think of mistakes as opportunities.
Test Your Knowledge! How much do you know about prefixes Take this quiz to find out .