Vocabulary Activities and Games for Kids

Vocabulary activities are an important part of literacy planning. Because they play a fundamental role in reading comprehension, planning kid-friendly lessons is essential. Children learn the meanings of most words indirectly, usually through everyday experiences with spoken language. However, other words are learned through careful instruction. So what does that look like?

WAYS TO DEVELOP WORD CONSCIOUSNESS

One component of an effective vocabulary program is helping children develop word consciousness. Making children aware of words and encouraging them to take an interest in language is a good place to start. In this ARTICLE BY READING ROCKETS, word consciousness is not an isolated part of vocabulary instruction. Instead, it should happen every day.

One of the easiest ways to begin developing word consciousness with children is by simply using richer words when speaking to them. I try not to overdo this. A little goes a long way. For example, I might say something like:

I’m so happy that we made it to lunch on time today. In fact, I’m elated.
Did everyone notice how Ben and Poppy kept working until they figured out the answer? They really persevered and never gave up, even though it was hard.
Kudos on keeping our bathroom clean… it’s so pristine in there!

BOOKS THAT FOSTER A LOVE FOR LANGUAGE

Another way to get kids excited about words is by reading quality literature to them, including poetry. The availability of outstanding picture books is endless, but I wanted to highlight a different type of book here. These are picture books specifically about the love of language.

Max’s Words by Kate Banks
My Father Knows the Names of Things by Jane Yolen
The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter
Big Words for Little People by Jamie Lee Curtis & Laura Cornell
Thesaurus Rex by Laya Steinberg
Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words by Jane O’Connor
Pig, Pigger, Piggest by Rick Walton
Why the Banana Split by Rick Walton
Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones by Gene Barretta
Donavan’s Word Jar by Monalisa DeGross

To see my favorite poetry books for kids, click HERE. It’s one of our favorite collections of books and is also a great resource for National Poetry Month in April.

“Few activities are as delightful as learning new vocabulary.” -Tim Gunn

VOCABULARY GAMES FOR KIDS

As far back as I can remember, I’ve had a fascination with words. My mom loved words too. In fact, she’s probably the single reason I fell in love with them. Not only did she read to us constantly, but she loved playing word games with us. Even as grown adults, she would plan family game nights at her house, complete with lots of junk food and lots of laughing.

Some word games have a spelling component built into them, such as Hangman. But there are many others that rely on a player’s vocabulary to increase their odds of winning. My favorite board game is Taboo. In this game, a player must get their teammates to say the target word without saying the other words listed on the card. Understanding language and knowing a wide variety of words, such as synonyms and antonyms, are skills players need to be good at this game.

DID YOU KNOW…👉 Hasbro has a new version of this game called TABOO: KIDS vs. PARENTS. It’s a great recommendation for parents who plan family game nights with their children.

OTHER STORE-BOUGHT GAMES THAT STRENGTHEN VOCABULARY:

Hedbanz
Pictionary: Kids vs. Grown-Ups
Scrabble Jr.
Taboo Jr.
Guess Who?
Cranium
Guesstures
Scattergories
Hit or Miss

ADAPTING VOCABULARY GAMES FOR CLASSROOM USE

When it comes to our favorite vocabulary activities, games top the list. If you’re familiar with any of the games listed above, you can probably already think of ways to modify them for your students. A super easy game to replicate in the classroom is TABOO.

No matter what we’re studying, I can find a way to turn the related key vocabulary into a TABOO game set. The set of cards pictured above is a generic set I use just to get my students used to the game and how it’s played. In this farm deck, the goal is to get their teammates to say the word on the card without ever mentioning that word in their clues.

For example, if the clue-giver is trying to get their teammates to say pig, the clues might sound like, “This is an animal that lives on a farm. It likes to roll around in the mud. Some have short curly tails.”

Once your students are good at it, you can make each card more like the actual game by adding synonyms and related key words that the clue-giver is not allowed to say. Want to elevate this a little more? Ask your students to suggest the words that should be added to the card. Their suggestions will give you a lot of insight about their vocabulary knowledge around the topic.👇

With this card👆, the game is more challenging. The clue-giver is aiming for the team to say PIG, without using the words pig, hog, mud, tail, bacon, or oink in any of the clues. This really forces kids to stretch their vocabulary muscles.

You don’t need fancy clip art to make this game in your classroom. Often, we just use index cards, especially if I’m having the kids make the deck. For example, near the end of our science unit on space, I’ll challenge teams to work together to make TABOO cards related to the key vocabulary from that unit. Depending on their skill level at that time of year, they’ll either make cards with a single word, such as sun, or cards with “Taboo Words,” like star, hot, ball, gas, and center.

VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES FOR ANY WORD LIST

Obviously books are a GREAT way to expose children to rich vocabulary words. In an earlier blog post, FAST FINDS: A FUN VOCABULARY ACTIVITY, I shared this idea in more detail. It works well in whole group lessons and also during small group instruction. I even love when I see students starting to replicate it on their own with friends. (Although part of that is their intense fasciation with sticky notes, lol.)

I begin by introducing key vocabulary words I want the kids to be thinking about while I’m reading. (See top photo.) Depending on your students and your goals for the lesson, you might want to do this during your second reading of the book. I usually do that when I want kids to “work” with a text. If I know we’re going to be diving IN to a book, I want them to experience it first as a story, purely for enjoyment. Then we can work with it the following day.

This is when I say something like, “Today, while you’re listening to the story, be thinking about these emotions… frustrated, hopeful, and sad. Try to notice places in the book where you think the characters are experiencing these feelings. Be prepared to explain your ideas.”

Open-ended GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS are another tool that will work for any set of vocabulary words you’re working on. Word webs, concept maps, T-charts, and DIY books help kids dig into the details and subtle nuances of new words.👇

INDEPENDENT WORD-LEARNING STRATEGIES

Vocabulary instruction wouldn’t be complete without teaching children strategies for figuring out the meanings of new words. In their blog post, THE COMPONENTS OF EFFECTIVE VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION, Colorín Colorado talks more about this:

“Because students learn most new words incidentally, through wide reading, helping students acquire a set of word-learning strategies is important to their vocabulary development.”

Knowing what words mean is essential for comprehension. So knowing HOW to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word is equally essential.

This VOCABULARY POSTER SET👆helps children learn and remember a variety of strategies they can try when they’re reading and come to a new word they don’t understand. From context clues, to multiple meaning words, to nonfiction text features, children need to learn how to actively become meaning-makers.

BUILDING YOUR TEACHER TOOLBOX

I love finding professional resources that were written specifically for the younger grade levels. Sometimes, they’re hard to come by, especially on the topic of vocabulary instruction. I feel lucky to have found this one.👇 If you’re looking for a quick read, this is it. It’s specific, to the point, and includes a lot of examples for teaching vocabulary across the day… not just during “vocabulary time.” Which, by the way, what even IS that?