Here, we pair three vocabulary-learning project ideas we've come across recently with suggestions for using Vocabulary.com to bring them to life.
Membership has its privileges: The Vocabulary-500 Club
This idea came to us via a private vocabulary tutor, who hosts a picnic celebration to induct her students who have mastered 500 words into the "Vocabulary-500" club. Adapt this in any way that fits your students' learning goals and your time constraints. Rather than a picnic, stage a cupcake party for the lucky few in your classroom during lunch or recess.
How Vocabulary.com can help: It's easy to track how many words you are mastering on Vocabulary.com. Just go to "My Progress" from any page on the site and you'll find the number of words you've mastered listed with other stats about your play. (To see the mastered words themselves, click on "Words I've Mastered.")
Be like Scripps: A Vocabulary Bee
The Scripps National Spelling Bee announced last week the addition of vocabulary questions to the much-beloved spelling bee. Why not follow suit by setting up a vocabulary bee in your classroom?
How Vocabulary.com can help: Create a word list and use the questions that come up as your learn it as the questions on your bee. When a student gets a question wrong, the whole class will see more questions on it and learn the word together.
Forget pajamas and crazy hair: Create a "Vocabulary Dress-Up Day"
Be like the students at Sippican School in Massachusetts, who seven years running come to school one day out of the year dressed as their favorite word. Be sure to take pictures and create a bulletin board to let the learning continue as students oggle pictures of themselves and their friends.
How Vocabulary.com can help: Each definition page in our Dictionary is chock full of learning resources that can help your student understand the subtleties of the word's multiple meanings. They'll see a friendly write-up that makes the definition come to life, a diagram of the word's family, and usage examples taken from real-world writing.
Don't have time for these vocabulary projects? Don't worry. If your students are learning words on Vocabulary.com, we've built school leaderboards, individual rewards such as badges, levels, and achievements, and extra content to help boost student engagement as they learn. As one student put it recently: "I start thinking I'll play for a couple rounds, then I’m getting all these questions right, and I’m like, 'I’m a master at this!'"
Want to Involve Your Community? We learned about these classroom activities by following vocabulary stories in local news. Be sure to write your local paper or Internet news site and let them know what you're doing. Kids loves seeing their names in print.
Have other ideas for projects to involve kids in learning words? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
