Find 23 ready to use, effective vocabulary activities your students will love, by The Teacher Next Door!
Need to help your students get more hands on practice for their vocabulary words? I've got 5 fun vocabulary games you can use right away!
“Hey kids, it’s time to practice our new vocabulary words.” Can you hear the moans and groans?Practicing vocabulary is boring (according to kids) but when you add in dice, it becomes a game! I call it Roll a Word! It’s easy peasy to implement! For each vocabulary students roll a die. The number they […]
Kindergarten blog for teachers in the classroom. Ideas for homeschooling as well. Free files to your with your students.
Greek and Latin roots are the "building blocks" of English and form a powerful framework to nurture students' vocabulary development.
“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.” —Bo Derek Robert Marzano, a guru of vocabulary instruction, tells us that the bright kids n…
This week I tried something new with the vocabulary in the story. I got the idea at a First Grade Conference in December. The student writes the vocabulary word in the middle of the sheet and then there are four things to do with the word. We completed two of the boxes together as a class and they finished the last two boxes independently. The kiddos sure had a great grasp of the vocabulary after this. When we read the story they had fantastic comprehension.
As the old adage goes, if you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. It turns out the same can be said about a student’s vocabulary: Teach her what a word means, and she’ll become a stronger reader. Even better, say researchers, teach your students what eight to 10 words mean, over the course of 37 to 50 weeks, and even your lowest readers could experience a 30 percent increase in word knowledge… And the more words your students know, the more likely they are to comprehend what they read. But as any of us who has memorized lists of vocabulary words knows, it can be – well, boring. As with many things school-related, the key to your students’ success with building their vocabularies is to make it fun! Check out these three No-Prep, No-Hassle, No-Excuses Vocabulary Games you can use with any sets of words. Tip: These work best as a review, after students have already heard the words and had a chance to use them (either during class warm ups or in homework). And...great news! I've compiled everything you need to play the games in an EXCLUSIVE FREEBIE! Guess Who? Write the vocabulary words on index cards (or have students do this). Here's a set of figurative language vocabulary cards... Without letting the students see, tape the cards to their backs. Have the students walk around the room and give clues to one another about the word on their backs. (For example, if Sam is wearing the word “onomatopoeia,” his partner may say, “The bacon sizzled in the frying pan.” Sam then takes a guess at what the word is. And so on.) When In Doubt, Bluff Divide your class into two teams. Write a vocabulary word on the board or write the words on cards and just display them inside this poster... Students who know the definition should stand up. Students who are bluffing and don’t know the definition also should stand. (Students who are unsure also may remain seated.) Call on a student at random to define the word. If the student gets it, his team gets points for every team member that is standing. If the student does not get it, the team loses points for every team member standing. The team with the most points at the end wins. Fast Talker Type the vocabulary words onto a SmartBoard or Powerpoint template (or use a visualizer) and project each word, one at a time, so the class can see it. Or, write the words on strips of paper for students to pull out of a bag or basket. Once students have a word, instead of asking for the definition of the word, call out alternative commands: · Part of speech · Synonym · Antonym · Roots · Use in a sentence (You can also write those commands on a beach ball and have students toss it to each other as you go through the words.) Or, you can put the commands on a paper cube that students roll for their "vocabulary fate." See how quickly the students can come up with an answer as you randomly call on them. It's a great idea to keep throwing in old words as the year progresses, so your students have a better shot of retaining the vocabulary words. Consider giving points or prizes when students identify vocabulary words in their reading material or outside of class. They’ll have fun. They’ll become better readers. And you won’t break a sweat! Everyone wins! Since we're on the topic of vocabulary, I thought I'd share my favorite way to teach vocabulary words. It's through doodling! Yes, doodling! I've found that combining vocabulary instruction with doodles...and then writing, is an amazing way to expand students vocabulary. I even created a set of 160 Daily Doodle Vocabulary words for grades 3-5 and grades 6-8. Ready for your freebie? Just click HERE for a set of vocabulary word cards, a poster, and the vocab cube. Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth
The debacle of taking grades.... I know some teachers that take a grade on EVERYTHING. Meaning, everything the kids do, they take a grade on and put in the "gradebook." I can't do that. BUT, I do use everything as an informal assessment. I used to have these nice, LOOOOOONG, drawn out plans for small groups. I was really proud of my plans for my small groups. But, then I realized I was missing out on some great teaching opportunities because I HAD to do those plans. lol Well, I decided to try something new and I've "thrown out" those lesson plans and started using our work throughout the day as a "telling" for what I need to do for small groups. I do it for both reading and math - if I see there are a handful of kids that are having trouble with a concept, then I will pull them back. Or if it's after I've already done my small groups, then I will do it for the next day. OR, if I have almost an entire class do it?? Then it'll just be a whole group lesson. Here - I happen to have an example from this week, that I actually took a picture of. Last week, when we were doing Sarah's er, ir, ur pack, I used one of the activities as an informal assessment, which will lead to my vocabulary lesson next week... They were doing the word sort, and I noticed that almost EVERY person did this...... SO, I'm guessing that they don't know the words "lurk" or "smirk" - lol. So, I will be using those two words as one of my vocab words... well, the correct spelling of lurk anyway - ha! Click the pic to down load - and there are "directions" for box for in the download for ya. In case you were wondering where I got the spelling activity - it came from Sarah Kirby Let me tell you, I will own ALL her word work packs eventually! lol In fact, this week we're getting ready to use her /oo/ pack. She has some really great ideas in them! There are certain people/sellers that have year-round activity packs...and I have them ALL Like Kathy Law's Color By Codes Sailing Through First's Super Sentences Yvonne' Math Journal Prompts and Anna's Math Journal Prompts Katie's Busy Teacher Denise's Printables Pack Lisa's Monthly Thematic Graphic Organizer and now Sarah has been added to that list. Also, this week, we've been working really hard on our 3-digit numbers, especially with all the skills in my Numbers Every Day pack - and as we've been doing it, I've been making a few tweaks....I just uploaded a revised version - go snag your updated version if you've bought it! I've actually been updating a lot of packs lately - you've seen the Thunderstorm pack and my Bear Snores On pack that I've recently updated. Next on my list to do some major updating are some of my first packs.... Don't forget - tomorrow is the big TpT Super Bowl Sale! (the extra percentage is only on the 3rd - but my store will still be on sale for the 4th) Make sure when you check out you put in "super" as the code to get the extra 10% off my sale prices! Here are few of my favorite things :)
Our guest blogger shares her tips about how to make time for vocabulary instruction and how to make vocabulary instruction engaging for your students!
Make word study fun and engaging for your students.
by Dr. Kelli Sandman-Hurley Let's break down the word action. Most people think that the suffix is -tion, however the true Latin suffix is -ion. - ion words
Find 23 ready to use, effective vocabulary activities your students will love, by The Teacher Next Door!
The following infographic offers some simple Dos-and-Don'ts for how to teach vocabulary in any content area.
Games are a great way to keep students engaged. Check out this list of games to use with your ELLs to help them improve their vocabulary.
These five fun word games will have your students practicing vocabulary terms without even realizing it! Check out this list for instructions for play.
What does the research tell us about best practices in teaching vocabulary?
