[Tiff]

I teach second grade and new some new ideas on teaching vocabulary. It is a huge part of our state testing. I am going to try to pull vocabulary out of our read alouds and then put them on some sort of vocabulary wall---looking for ideas---
thanks

[VCUTeach]

I do quite a bit with vocab too. I have a few games that were inspired by Kagan strategies. My version- Vocabulary Freeze- I use sentence strips and write brief definitions of the vocab we are currently studying. I give the kids the words (printed off computer, index cards, cut up sentence strips, whatever is easier) Once I give them the word they move anywhere in the room. When I say MIX, they move around the room quielty and switch with whomever they pass. Then I will say FIND. They have to find the deffinition of the word that they now have and FREEZE in to a pose by the deffinition. They can not talk or move until I move to them. I act like I have a magic spray and pretend to unfreeze them. Usually there is more than one student at a spot so I point to who gets to talk. I say WORD and the student says the word. I point again and say DEFFINITION and the other student read the deffinition. I freeze them back when they are done. We do this multiple times so that the kids get more than one word. They come back to me and give me their word. I hand them out again. To aviod the " I already had this one!" thing I tell them to simply raise their hand and I would know what the signal meant.
You can mix this up and use clues, fill in the blank sentences, post the words and give the deffinition, etc.
I also use MIX FREEZE PAIR. It is fairly similar to Vocabulary Freeze except some students have the deffinition and some have the word. They mix like above, freeze when I say freeze and then without talking find the person who has the match. They then have to freeze or strike a pose and I do the same as above. I tried these without the freeze/strike a pose thing and of course the kids would be distracted/talking/etc while you are working with another group. At least this way even if they are distracted they are not being a distraction to others who are paying attention. I love these kinds of things because it allows them to get up and move!! They love it too!
I also have on a large wall in my room a WORDS TO REMEMBER WALL. Here I have a spot for math words, science words, ss words, and LA words. After a unit in any of the subjects I post the most important vocabulary(just the word). It gets added to like a regular word wall for high freqency words. We play mystery word and guess my word. Things like that. It is nice to use when you have a few minutes before lunch or before the buses get there. I like it because we are constantly having conversations throughout the year about words we used in Sept. Anyway, I know I rambled! I hope you got some good ideas. These are just a few things that I do, but some of my favorite. Enjoy!

[Tiff]

Thanks so Much! You had some great ideas---anything different that will get them excited!I loved it!

[gayla311]

I will use these in my 3rd grade room as well! Thanks!

[love2read]

This idea also goes along with teaching context clues. I say or write sentences with a nonsense word. Then I ask them to think of as many words as they can that could really fit. For example, "I like to drink nice cold chocolate humdingers." Humdingers could be milk, milkshake, etc. That one was pretty easy but you get the idea. I call this the Humdinger Game and they think it is a treat to play it.
We also do some kind of shared reading every week: a poem, a big book, etc. Sometimes I use post-it notes to cover a word or I might circle it with wikki stix and then we do the same thing. What could that word be/mean? What makes sense and why?
Finally, during word study (spelling) they practice their words by putting them in sentences, looking them up in dictionaries, or writing synonyms/antonyms for some words.

[anngirl]

We us the GLAD strategies for vocabulary. I use the whole first day on a new selection to work on vocabulary. (I teach 3rd grade btw).

The kids actually enjoy it. I make a big chart on chart paper that has 5 different sections.
1) the word
2) a tally of how many students have heard of the word and how many haven't
3)the students' ideas what the definition may be- using previous knowledge and context clues.
4)the dictionary definition
5) And best of all....a drawing of what the word means.

The idea is to leave up the charts as long as you can so the students can refer back to the charts over the weeks.

Sometimes I try to use those vocabulary words in the morning journal entry so they have to really internalize them.