Vocabulary

Supporting vocabulary development at home:

• Word of the Week: The Child Development Institute (n.d.) shares this fun family game, where each week a new vocabulary word is chosen and displayed somewhere in the house like on the refrigerator. The family should then discuss what the word means, and then the members of the family try to use the word as many times as possible during the week (in each other’s presence). Different family members can choose the word each week, perhaps from a book they are reading, or something they hear on TV, or from school. Continue to display the words even after the week, perhaps on a cabinet or bulletin board to encourage their continued use. Research tells us that a person needs 5-7 exposures to a new word before it becomes part of their vocabulary. (K5 Learning, n.d.)

• Ten Questions: Another family game shared by The Child Development Institute (n.d) where one member decides on a vocabulary word but keeps it to themself to begin the game, and the game begins when another family member asks the first question which should always be “Is it an animal, vegetable, or mineral?” As the questions are answered, it gives more clues to the word and leads to more questions. The ultimate goal is to guess the word in 10 or fewer questions. The questioning process supports associating the new word with its attributes which helps to learn the word. It also gives questioning practice, and questioning is a great literary skill so it has more than one payoff.

• Multiple Meanings: Many words have multiple meanings. Reading Rockets (2010) shares this simple activity using multiple meaning words. Choose a multiple-meaning word and make a game of coming up with as many ways as possible to use the word. Discuss the different meanings. Home Speech Home provides a great source of multiple-meaning word lists by grade level that can help with this activity.

• Start at the Root: Reading Rockets (2010) shares this fun, quick vocabulary activity. Start by providing your child or family with a root word, such as light. Then have your child or family come up with as many words as possible that have light as part of the word, relight, lightable, lighted, delight, etc. An extension of this when using a multiple meaning root such as light would be to sort the words by those that have light as in from the sun or lamp and those that have light as in not heavy and any oddballs that do not fit the categories.

  • • • • • • Word Trees: A more sophisticated version of this, perhaps appropriate for upper elementary grade students and older is to create word trees using Latin root words and adding prefixes (beginnings) and suffixes (endings). A great model of this, including printables, is available from Rippel (n.d.) at All About Learning Press.

            • Consider the Prefix: Begin with a prefix and discuss the meaning it brings to a word. Have your child think of as many words they can which begin with this prefix. Use this as a chance to introduce new words and to show them how knowing what the prefix means helps them to understand it. (Reading Rockets, 2010) Perhaps make a chart of the words you came up with together and ask your child to be on the look out for more words to add when they are reading, and you do the same.

McEwan (2008) shares, in a Reading Rockets article Root Words, Roots and Affixes, charts that can be downloaded and printed with Latin and Greek root words and their meanings, as well as common prefixes and suffixes and their meanings. These can be used with all of the activities shared under Start at the Root.