Vocabulary just happens to be one of those things that is taught on Monday for about 10 minutes, and then never discussed again. I do it differently. I will TRY to go over the words on Monday, but there have been times where I waited until Tuesday because we spend a good 30 minutes really digging deep into the words to fully understand them.
Each week, the students have 7 new vocabulary words about our topic for the week. We spend about 5 minutes on each word doing lots of activities to meet each child's learning style and to differentiate learning abilities. I will show the word, say the word, and then the students repeat me. I then read the word in a sentence, and the students turn and talk to their group about what the word means. They have some really fantastic conversations. Some students provide examples of the word in different sentences while others can give a good definition of the word. I like to walk around and listen for keys words to mention when we bring it back to whole group. This is a great informal assessment to see what words students already know and to see students working together to gain vocabulary. When we come back to whole group, I mention key words I heard and give them the kid-friendly definition along with other examples. I try to make it all as kid-friendly as possible. Finally, the students write the word and can either draw a picture of what the word means or use it in a sentence. Below are pictures of the worksheet I use for that.
As you can see, this simple worksheet helps to meet the needs of all learners in my class because they write the word and draw a picture that best represents the word or they can write a sentence using the word. It works with all learners because the students TALK about the word and its meaning with their peers, they LISTEN to other students and the teacher within discussions, they WRITE the word and may possibly write a sentence using the word, and they DRAW a picture of what they word would look like.
Now, don't give me any of the credit for this activity. I got the freebie on Teachers Pay Teachers from the lovely Leslie Ann Rowland. Click here for a link to this amazing freebie! She has 2 awesome blogs that I love: Life in First Grade and Life in Fifth Grade. She is a former 1st Grade teacher and current 5th Grade teacher. (The opposite of me as I am a current 1st Grade teacher and former 5th Grade teacher!) I can't wait to try out her Vocabulary Graphic Organizer soon!
