Vocabulary
Vocabulary refers to words that an individual knows the meaning of and uses frequently, both orally and in writing. Vocabulary building is vital to reading success. When children are exposed to a vast amount of meaningful and robust words, all areas of communication improves: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. When these areas improve, academic and social confidence also improves. The more words a child knows the meaning of, the better their reading comprehension will be. Reading levels and fluency will also increase.
There are several strategies to help build vocabulary:
Read - Increase the amount of daily reading. An additional 10 minutes of reading can create vocabulary growth. Make sure that the books that are being read are at the child's independent level and contain interesting and/or unfamiliar words.
Context Clues - Readers need to use context clues to help understand the meaning of unfamiliar words. While you are listening to your child read, stop at the end of the sentence where an unfamiliar word appears and ask what the word means and why.
Talk - Use unfamiliar words in your daily conversations. More exposure to unfamiliar words will help promote vocabulary development. Also, talk about a variety of topics (ex. politics, sports, art, etc.). This will broaden not only vocabulary, but also their knowledge about the world.
Try these links:
www.english-zone.com/vocab/vic01.html Provides instruction and practice at finding the meaning of new words through the use of context clues.
www.vocabulary.co.il/fifth-grade-vocabulary-games/#bottom Provides games for students to review prefixes, suffixes, and other vocabulary activities. Activities for other grade levels are available at this site.
www.quiznet.com You can create quizzes, flash cards, and more using vocabulary words.
www.primarygames.com Kids can create crossword puzzles using their vocabulary words.
www.enchantedlearning.com Various resources and printables available to help build vocabulary.
http://www.joelheffner.com/scribble.html This is a game that can be played with just one person or the whole family. Come up with as many words as you can using certain letters in five minutes.
http://www.vocabulary.co.il/ Provides games that help with vocabulary practice including games for ESL students.
Activities to try at home:
vWhile riding in the car, play root word games. The first person says the root word (build). Then, the next person must say another tense of the word or add a suffix or prefix (building). Play continues until no one can come up with any other versions of the word. The last person to say a word gets to choose the next round's word.
vReread a favorite childhood book. Then take out basic words like "walked" or "happy" and work on coming up with other words to use in those places such as "trotted" or "cheerful" and talk about how changing the words can make the story more interesting.
vPlay Scrabble, Boggle, Apples to Apples, or Bananagrams as a family. Allow the child to use a dictionary if necessary.
vKeep a vocabulary journal or list of interesting words. Have a challenge among members of the family to see who can find and define the most unfamiliar words in a day or week. This could be played individually or by team.
vDuring commercial breaks, play Dice Words. Roll the dice and see how many words each person can write down during the commercial break that have that many letters. Feel free to help with spelling and definitions. (ex. 6 is rolled, museum, heaven, walker, etc.)
vFor your visual learner, have them draw a picture to help remember the meaning of their new vocabulary words.
