Does anyone have any great ideas to teach vocabulary to second graders?
I teach second grade in a reading first school. We need to teach vocabulary daily during our UA time. Does anyone have any fun ideas that I could use with seven and eight year olds? The way I taught it last year just didn't work. I did a vocabulary note book and it just was not beneficial.
At that age, children like to play more than they like to learn, o it is important to make learning fun. A vocabulary game I used with my elementary age kids was called "Transformation, Mutation." The goal was for children to understand that a single word could be transformed into a different part of speech, for example, the verb "transport" could be made into "Transportation" or the word "Concentration" could be made into the verb "concentrate." To make sure that the kids understood the word, they were asked to use the word in a sentence. Depending on the class dynamics, this game can be played individually or in teams. Another alternative is to "sing the words in rhythm." The students would tap their lap on one beat, then clap their hands on the next beat, and be required to come up with a word on one of the beats. Then it would go to the next person in the circle. There are lots of variations on this game.
Charades is also fun to teach vocabulary (especially if it is verbs that you are teaching.)
Another fun game that I used was "the fishing game." This game is played in 2 teams. I put the vocab words on flashcards, eachone attached to a paper clip. Then I called out a definition of the word or a synonym and the two "fishers" on each team had to try to retrieve the word first. Whicever team correctly got the word got a point. Every student had a chance to be a fisher, because they waited in a line. The students really liked this game and often had no idea that they were learning vocabulary.
The most important thing is to make it fun.
Second Grade Lesson Plans
