Making Vocabulary Fun

I thought I would share some creative ideas on how to add vocabulary words into your KONOS or Unit studies. This topic comes up a lot in my email loop, and it has been helpful to me as well. We have not been really doing many fun things lately with vocabulary, and I'm looking forward to adding in some more of them going forward. So, maybe this post is as much about encouraging myself as you!

First of all, your kids are never too young to learn vocabulary. You would be surprised what they can learn and remember if you only give them a chance. My six barely seven year old does our big KONOS words. The words from our current unit are:

Sedimentary
Crystal
Specimen
Gem
Igneous
Mineral
Metamorphic
Cleavage
Solution
Fracture

We have always talked to our children like adults. It is so funny to hear them talking like big people back to us. We went on a field trip not long ago to rock climb (an Ozark foothill), and my daughter said to me, "This was ambitious." HA! She was six then. :) They don't always remember the vocabulary words, but it expands their minds and gives them "pegs" for later years to hang information on in their little brains.

Here are some vocabulary ideas that have been inspirational for me:

• Play lots of vocabulary games


• Write the words in shaving cream


• Paint the words and paint a picture with it


• Glue the words in beans


• Shuffle flash cards and see if they can match the definition to the word


• Have them write the words and look them up in the dictionary online or in the book


• Sing the words


• Use the words in a sentence


• Do a crossword puzzle with the words (see Puzzlemaker.com for easy printables)


• Put the words in ABC order


• Do copy work - copy the definition down beside the words.


• Write a pen pal letter and make them use all the words in the letter


• Cut the words out and let them do a collage with the words and pictures from magazines or their own drawings.

Vocabulary is as fun as you make it!


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