Vocabulary Fun: Words of the Week

Vocabulary Fun: Words of the Week - Photo Taken by Tracy Miller, Mesa, AZ

During our homeschooling years, one of the many goals I had for our daughters was for them to expand their vocabularies and develop good communication skills. I came up with a fun way to help them learn new vocabulary words that we called Words of the Week.

We recognized the benefit of this activity one afternoon over lunch out at a restaurant when the girls were about 9 and 11. Our oldest daughter, Olivia, wanted to get her hair cut in a particular style. I wasn’t in favor of this and a conflict arose between us. My husband—ever the problem solver—began asking each of us questions to help us understand the other’s position and hopefully come to an agreement. When neither of us would bend, our younger daughter, who had been pretty quiet during most of the discussion, chimed in and stated that it seemed we had reached an impasse. 

As you probably guessed, “impasse” was a vocabulary word Alex learned through our Words of the Week activity. James and I were duly impressed with her appropriate use of this word at a very unexpected moment. We all had a good laugh together and enjoyed the rest of our lunch. I don’t recall what we decided about Olivia’s hair, but I’ll never forget Alex’s use of her vocabulary word at just the right time!

GETTING STARTED

I used the book Words You Should Know by David Olsen to select about 100 words that I thought the girls should learn in a year. This book of "1200 essential words every educated person should be able to use and define" helped make the task of choosing words a little easier than hunting through tens of thousands of words in a dictionary.

First, decide how many words per week you’d like your children to learn. Multiply that by the number of weeks in your school year and choose enough words to meet your needs. We aimed to do Words of the Week 2-3 times per week. See preparation instructions at the end of this article.

WORDS OF THE WEEK ACTIVITY

SUPPLIES NEEDED: A composition or spiral-bound notebook for each child, a dictionary, and a notebook for mom or dad with a few sheets of paper for tracking each child’s words.

Each child selects a word from the jar (on their assigned color of card stock) and performs the following tasks:

1.   Write the word in his or her notebook along with the part of speech and a definition of the word from the dictionary.

2.   Write an original sentence correctly using the vocabulary word.

3.   Give mom or dad the slip of paper so the parent can record each child’s word, one word per line.

REINFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY #1 - Use Vocabulary Words in Conversation

Throughout the week, each student tries to use the new vocabulary word in conversation as much as possible. Every time he or she uses the word appropriately, the parent or the child makes a tally mark next to the word in the parent notebook. Mom or dad can award prizes at the end of the week or month when the child successfully uses each word a certain number of times.

Using new words in conversation is an excellent way to reinforce what’s been learned and to adopt them as part of one’s vocabulary.

It got to be quite amusing how creatively the girls would find ways to use their words of the week in everyday communications. 

ACTIVITY #2 - Create a Word Find or Crossword Puzzle

Provide graph paper (with a larger grid—¼” works well) and encourage your children to create a word find or a crossword puzzle with at least ten of the words they have learned. Have the kids create an answer key, too. Make copies of the puzzles and your children can ask friends or family members to try to solve the puzzles. Our daughters liked having their dad do the puzzles they created when he was done with work for the day.

ACTIVITY #3 - Create a Work of Art

If your kids like to do hands-on projects, have them create a poster writing their vocabulary words in creative, colorful styles or using letter stamps. Another idea is to create a ransom note style poster where they cut letters out of newspapers and magazines and glue the letters onto a poster board to spell out their vocabulary words. 

ACTIVITY #4 - Creative Writing Assignment

Ask your child to select a number of his or her vocabulary words and work them into a short story, letter, news report, or poem.

ACTIVITY #5 - Review in Motion

Motion activities are great for younger children and those with lots of energy. Write your child’s vocabulary words on pieces of felt with a Sharpie®. Give the child a ping pong ball with Velcro® dots attached. Spread the felt words out on the floor. Read the definitions one at a time and have your child throw the ball onto the word that goes with the definition you read. There are a number of variations you could use for this review game. For example, the child could jump onto the piece of felt with the word that matches the definition you read. He or she could throw a beanbag or a rolled up ball of socks, and the words could be written on paper instead of felt.

Think outside the box. Be creative. Get your kids using new words. And most importantly, have fun learning and growing together!

Words of the Week - Photo taken by Tracy Miller, Mesa, AZ

PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS 

If writing the words by hand:

STEP 1: CUT CARD STOCK INTO STRIPS

Cut paper into 1” x 4” strips. Use a separate color paper for each student. 

STEP 2: WRITE EACH WORD ON A STRIP OF PAPER

Repeat on the other colors of card stock so that each student has an identical set of words, or select unique words for each student, whichever you prefer.

STEP 3: PUT THE STRIPS INTO A JAR

Fold the strips, mix them up, and put into a large jar or container with a lid.

If typing the words:

STEP 1: CREATE A NEW WORD DOCUMENT AS FOLLOWS

Margins – 0.5” on all sides

Columns – Two; change spacing (gutter) to 1”

Line Spacing – 3.0

Font – Bold, 20-24 point font size, center alignment

STEP 2: TYPE THE WORDS YOU CHOSE INTO THE WORD DOC

You should get 18 words per page (9 per column). 

STEP 3: PRINT ONTO CARD STOCK

Repeat on a separate color card stock so that each student has his or her own set of words.

STEP 4: CUT THE PAGES INTO STRIPS

Fold the strips, mix them up, and put into a large jar or container with a lid.

OPTION: If you don’t want to make a separate set of words for each child, you could prepare one set and have each child write their name on the back when they complete a word, putting it back in the jar for their siblings. Once all of your children have completed a word, it can be removed from the jar.

Nancy Manos and her husband, James, live in Chandler, Arizona and have two daughters whom they homeschooled through high school. The Manos’ home education journey was a rich, rewarding, sometimes challenging experience, and Nancy is passionate about encouraging others in the homeschool adventure. Nancy and James have served on the board of directors for Arizona Families for Home Education (AFHE) since 2004.

www.nancymanos.com 

Copyright 2013 Nancy Manos
Please contact author for permission to reprint this article.