V-O-C-A-B-U-L-A-R-Y

I'm always on the look out for new ways to work with vocabulary. I've tried a lot of things over the span of my career.  Some things have worked...some...well, not so much!

I just know that the more a student SEES the word and HEARS the word the more likely it is to "stick".  So, I've been doing a few things differently.  I've been having the words flash on a power point and having the kids say the words together. So far so good.

(I gather them on the carpet to help them focus. Then we try to read the words quickly. We try to do it quicker each day.  Some days I pick random words and ask if anyone can make a sentence using the word.  I also post the power points on my school website for them to be able to practice at home.)

Here is a word from my Reading Essential Vocabulary Power Point 1...

Other words included on this power point are reading, read, homophone, vowel pattern, diphthong, root, root word, affixes, homonym, homophone, context clue, tense, syllable, poetry, line, stanza, headings, bold face, italic, predict, and prediction.

Or this one from my Weather Power Point...

This one also includes the words tornado, hurricane, blizzard, thunderstorm, lightning, flood, drought, weather vane, rain gauge, and rainfall.

I have ones for each subject/unit that I teach.  The kids are really building a bigger vocabulary.  If they are unsure of what a word means, we go back to that word and discuss it.  Then review it the next day.

I then thought about how on the test certain phrases trip them up. For each test, I highlighted the words that are often found together. Then I created the power points with the phrases.

For instance...

Boy, have they become better readers because of it! I'm so tickled with their progress.  I have added some of the power points to my store at Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook. Check them out! Give it a try! What could it hurt?  Let me know how it goes!

Enjoy!  Now, back to the zoo...