Three Easy Vocabulary Activities for Kids

During the summer months the average child loses two months worth of grade-level content (Cooper, 1996). So, now that school is out, what are we doing to ensure that our children maintain and learn new skills.

One of the two easiest skills to hone in on during the summer, as we explore new places with them, is vocabulary. Research shows that a student can successfully file five new words into his/her long term memory in the span of a teaching week (five days). Here are a couple of fun and easy ways to present new content to your child/children.

1. Create Visual Cue Cards. Have your child create something to remind him/herself of what the new word means. The visual cue helps remind us of the new word and properly stores it in our long term memories. Here's Jeremiah's depiction of rapacious. I think his visual cue is pretty cool since those rapacious politicians, I talked about earlier, always have their hands out.

2. Make A Video Explaining the Word. Yesterday's word was rapacious (meaning greedy). Today, instead of using a word with a negative connotation, we will use one with a positive charge. The word unctuous means smooth or greasy. I also changed our cue today. Rather than doing a visual cue alone, due to the nature of the word unctuous, I adding in a kinesthetic activity. Be mindful that people also use unctuous speech to manipulate others. Here is a good sentence for the word unctuous: The rapacious politicians use unctuous speech to convince the public to vote for them. (Yeah, almost every sentence may have a political undertone.)

3. Utilize the Audio Modality. Some kids actually learn better from what they hear than what they see or do. For those children, it is great to make a podcast. You can use Microsoft MovieMaker, Audacity or even iMovie to create a podcast.

The key is to make sure your child spends at least 15 minutes with the new word each day. Also, ensure that you are also using the word to reinforce learning and have them do a creative project at the end of the week where he/she somehow displays the words used in context. Children can use storyboards, mini-wordwalls, Prezis...the possibilities are literally endless...well, actually not quantitatively, but my use of hyperbole here is uber important.

Happy Teaching & Learning!