This resource includes everything you need to implement a Words of the Week or Word of the Day routine in your classroom. You’ll find digital slides for introducing each word, word cards to post on your word wall, printable activity sheets, and a digital activity sheet option.

If you wish to use the digital component, use it to introduce each word. Begin by showing the slide with the word only. Ask your students questions like, “Have you heard this word before? Where have you heard it? What does it mean?” Then show the slide with the definition and sample sentence and discuss.

Next, post the matching word cards on your vocabulary board, word wall, or a piece of chart paper, where they will stay for the week. I love to use sticky notes for a vocabulary routine – it adds an element of fun and challenge for your students! Have your students write a sentence using a specified number of vocabulary words. Or, provide extra challenge by having students use as many vocabulary words as possible in a paragraph!

If you’d prefer not to use sticky notes, you may also use the printable or digital activity sheets.

Then comes the fun part! Use the words throughout the week in your classroom. Use them in your teaching, notice them in the books you read, and encourage your students to use them in their writing! Another fun idea is to choose a challenge word and have your students use it as much as possible when speaking to other staff members in the school. See how long it takes the other staff members to catch on!

Next, dedicate a space in your classroom to post the new vocabulary words once you have worked with them for the week. This can serve as a year-long word wall that students can refer to for their writing and speaking.

Ready to get started helping your students build a robust vocabulary? Find the Grades 2-4 version here and the Grades 5-8 version here.

Looking for other fun ways to help your students enrich their vocabulary? Find more ideas here!

The post Need a Fun Vocabulary Routine? Try a Word of the Day Challenge! appeared first on Shelley Gray.

Word Map

Have students show connections between new vocabulary and words they already know using a graphic organizer. Try creating a word map as a class for new vocabulary words. Include ideas such as synonyms, antonyms, similar words, or rhyming words.

Vocabulary Short Stories

Write a short story or paragraph using as many vocabulary words as possible. Challenge students to use as many as they can!

Collaborative Story

This is related to the last idea, but this time it’s collaborative! First, have each student choose a vocabulary word. One student uses their word to write a sentence, and then the next student adds to the story using their word until all students have contributed. Then read aloud and prepare to be entertained!

Word of the Day/Words of the Week Vocabulary Routine

Use this Building Vocabulary resource for Grades 2-4 or Grades 5-8 to implement a simple but effective vocabulary routine. Use the digital slides to predict and discuss. What does this word mean? Have you heard it before? Then post the word cards on your vocabulary bulletin board or a piece of chart paper where they will stay for the week. Have students use the new words to write sentences or paragraphs.

Use the words throughout the week in your classroom! Use the new vocabulary in your teaching if possible, and encourage your students to use the new words in their writing.  At the end of each week, add the words to a word wall, where they can stay as student references all year long!

See the Grades 2-4 Building Vocabulary resource HERE or the Grades 5-8 Building Vocabulary resource HERE.

Graffiti Wall

Students write vocabulary words and decorate them with colors, patterns or designs that help them make connections to the words.

Guessing Game

Students join in partners, write the vocabulary words on cards, and divide them equally. One student gives clues, while the other must guess the vocabulary word. Students take turns giving clues and guessing.

Word Sort

Students sort a group of vocabulary words by certain criteria. Students could sort words based on part of speech, words they know and words they don’t know, or any other criteria relevant to your classroom.

Gallery Walk/Carousel Activity

Post pieces of chart paper around the classroom, with one vocabulary word written on each piece. Students circulate the room in partners or groups of three, writing a new sentence on each piece of paper. The sentence MUST be different from all the others that have already been written. When everyone is finished, have a class discussion to share the sentences. See more about how to do a gallery walk in this post.

Word Detectives

See how many vocabulary words students can find in daily reading across subject areas. Keep a tally on the board that students can add to when they see one of the vocabulary words.

Word Fix

Use one of the vocabulary words incorrectly. Have students correct the mistake.

Sketchnotes

Have students draw sketches relating to the word, filling their page with all the vocabulary words for the week or month. This gives students a visual association and makes the words meaningful for students.

The post 11 Fun Ideas to Help Your Students Build a Robust Vocabulary appeared first on Shelley Gray.

To make this activity more challenging, encourage students to use descriptive words and detail in their writing. Show some examples before beginning to illustrate this. For example, which sounds better:

“Camping is my favorite.”

OR

“Camping is an activity that I love to do with my family.”

Also, encourage students experiment with sentence structure. Here are two ways to say, “I like baseball.” Which sounds better? Why?

“Baseball is fun.”

OR

“Baseball is a sport that I love to play.”

Lastly, students can work with manipulating their sentences to fit the letters that are left. For example, suppose that a student wants to say, “I live in Manitoba,” but the “I” is already taken. How about rearranging that sentence to say, “Manitoba is where I live,” to use for the letter M?

Download this activity for free from Teachers Pay Teachers HERE or directly from my website HERE. Enjoy!

The post A-Z Autobiography: Free Activity and Instructions appeared first on Shelley Gray.

What do you get when you cross a gift bag with a few brass fasteners, some duct tape and a stack of lined paper? Why, a gift bag journal of course!

This really is one of the neatest projects that I have ever done with my students. I did it with a group of grade fours, and I will warn you, that some of the steps were a bit difficult even for them, but if you have classroom volunteers at your disposal, this is a great project!

This project is exactly as it sounds. It is a regular old gift bag, transformed into a journal that students will love to write in! I have outlined the entire process of making the journal below, with about a zillion pictures. Enjoy!

Would you rather watch the video tutorial? View it on YouTube here:

First things first, you will need to gather your supplies. Of course you need a gift bag. If you want your journal to hold regular lined paper, you should use a gift bag that is approximately 11 inches wide by 13 inches tall. You will also need three brass fasteners, a piece of Velcro, and some duct tape. I like to use the decorative duct tape rather than the plain old grey color. Because really, who doesn’t love zebra-striped duct tape?

Open up your gift bag and remove the hard piece of cardboard from the bottom. Then tip the bag up on its side and cut down one of the sides, as shown in the pictures below.

Now you need to cut on the folds of each bottom corner. You will need to do four cuts altogether, so that your gift bag will lay like this.

Next, fold up the bottom flap. I like to fold in the corners to make it a bit neater. Both bottom flaps should look like this:

Now tape down those flaps that you just folded.

Now it is time to fold down the side flaps on each side. You will do exactly as you did with the bottom flaps:

…and then tape them so that it looks something like this:

To get a more finished look, I added a few more strips of duct tape.

Okay, here comes the hard part. Stay with me here.

We are going to make the center of the gift bag into a duo-tang type holder so that it will hold paper. First fold the bag right in half like this:

Then you fold the right side back, leaving a small fold in the center. The pictures below will help this make more sense:

Now we need to do the same thing to the other side. In essence, you are folding half of the center piece in half again to create a spot for the paper to be held.

When you are done folding it should look like this:

Now to create some holes. Simply hole punch the center folds using a three hole punch.

Now you can place paper between the folds, and hold it in with the three brass fasteners.

Lastly, add a velcro dot to the inside so that the bag will stay closed.

Ta daaaa! You have made a gift bag journal!

When I made these with my students, I fastened a hook to the side of each student’s desk which was used to hang the journals. Then they were handy for writing at all times. I also had students bring in their own gift bags so that they could have a Spiderman journal or a polka-dot journal, or whatever they wanted! Good luck with your journals!

Thanks for stopping by,

Shelley

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