Advanced Vocabulary Sets
I know many students slog through the typical vocabulary contract week after week. I know because I put my own students through it! Here are some ways to liven up your word studies:
Multiple Meaning Words & Homophones
Teach students about the art of wordplay using puns. My class wrote jokes about:
- bands that were banned
- vain veins
- gorillas serving as guerrillas
- and hoarse horses
Be sure to push your students beyond simple examples and encourage them to learn new meanings. Provide them with lists so they can explore and develop their own “punny” examples.
Check out the Multiple Meaning Matcher for my favorite version of this.
Etymology & Greek and Latin Roots
To learn Greek and Latin word origins, my students created names for spells, new Pokemon (we called them Greekymon), and designed strange inventions.
My students came up with things like:
- Geosynth – a creature who can manipulate rocks
- Aquamorphotron – A terraforming tool that reshapes aquatic environment
- Chronosonarium – a surreal instrument that pulls sounds from different time periods
My class absolutely loved creating this stuff. They’d work on it at recess. I once had to break up a “Greek spell battle” in class. And it’s by far the activity I hear about the most from teachers.
Here’s are all of my Byrdseed.TV videos based around these Greek and Latin root activities.
Idioms
Idioms are a goldmine! Even your most gifted readers may be unfamiliar with some common English idioms since they just haven’t encountered them yet. They’re especially helpful for kids who have learned English as a second language.
Students also enjoy researching idiom origins. It’s especially delightful when the origin has several possibilities. Mysteries are great!
I did weekly studies of five idioms, usually grouped to a theme. I have a whole bunch of grouped idiom videos here at Byrdseed.TV.
Antagonyms
Antagonyms (aka contronyms) are words that have opposing meanings. For example:
Dust can mean “remove dust” as well as “add dust”
- She dusted the shelf.
- He dusted the cake with sugar.
Clip can mean to attach or to cut.
- She clipped the paper to the board.
- He clipped the corner off the paper.
Bound can mean “moving towards” as well as “immobile”
- The train was bound for Paris.
- He was bound by ropes.
Can you hear your students’ brains firing up! Same word!? Opposite meanings!?
You can find an example of this at Byrdseed.TV here.