Building your child's vocabulary is essential in each year of his education because the older your child gets the bigger his vocabulary should become. The more vocabulary your child understands the better his reading comprehension becomes, and the better your child is able to communicate with those around him.Generally vocabulary building activities are found within a language arts curriculum, so often times we don't put too much emphasis on extra vocabulary lessons or take the time to generate vocabulary-specific lesson plans. But, if you know your child is struggling with vocabulary, here are some great ideas to help him build his vocabulary in a fun and interactive way. Keep in mind that you can adapt these activities to the grade that your child is in at present.
Word Association through Pictures
Materials: Poster board, magazines, scissors, glue, dictionay, pencil, paper
Create a poster board that has pictures you cut from a magazine. Each picture should represent a new vocabulary word that you want to introduce. An example would be a picture of a popular restaurant, such as "McDonald's" with the word franchise below it. Have your child look up the word franchise in the dictionary and write out its definition under the picture.
Vocabulary Matching Game
Materials: Poster board, magazine(s), scissors, glue, dictionary, pencil, paper
Preparation: Look through the magazine for vocabulary words. Use only one magazine for elementary and middle school children and two or three magazines for high school students. Next, write the vocabulary word on an index card. Make an individual index card for each word you want your child to learn.
Create a poster board that has clues (definitions of words) on it, such as "object
used to flip pancakes." Leave enough space for your child to find the picture in the magazine, cut it out, and glue it under the clue. Now have your child look through the vocabulary words that you created on index cards and have them match the vocabulary word to the clue/picture that they have already completed. Let your child use a dictionary to look about the vocabulary words on the index cards to be sure they are matching the right words.Vocabulary Jigsaw Puzzle
Create a worksheet that looks like a puzzle. You can also buy cut blank puzzles from a local craft store, if you wish. Write a new vocabulary word on each puzzle piece. Have your child either cut apart the pieces or break apart the puzzle, if using a pre-made puzzle, and mix them up. Now you call out definitions of these words, and your child puts the puzzle back together.
Vocabulary BINGO
Most every child likes to play this popular game. Turn it into a vocabulary lesson
plan by filling in the spaces with vocabulary words. Call out the definitions and have your child fill a space if they have the matching word. Give out candy or a small prize to your child, when he wins! You can even make your own BINGO cards.
