Vocabulary Activities for Primary Students
Learning vocabulary is fundamental for primary school students because it is essential for reading comprehension and writing. Activities are effective tools for teaching vocabulary, as they grab young learners' attention and provide them with an entertaining and stimulating exercise to complete. Come up with group and individual activities for your students to help them understand new vocabulary words.
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The Dictionary Game
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The dictionary game is an activity that students complete individually. The teacher gives the class a new vocabulary word, and each student must write down what he thinks the definition of the word is. Then, the teacher moves on to the second new vocabulary word. After all of the words are defined by the students, the teacher calls on the students to share their definitions. Each student has a turn to share the definition that he came up with. At the end of the activity, the teacher tells the class what the real definition of each word is. The student who guessed the closest wins the activity.
Word Scavenger Hunt
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A word scavenger hunt is based off of new vocabulary words that primary students learn in class. After the new words are taught to students, the students are divided into teams, and they get a list of words that they must find on their scavenger hunt. Newspapers and magazines are the tools that students use to look for the words. When a word is found in the newspaper or magazine the student cuts out the word with craft scissors and glues it to a piece of construction paper. Students must complete this process for all of the words on the scavenger hunt list. The first team to complete its scavenger hunt wins.
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Bingo Lingo
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Bingo Lingo is a bingo game that uses vocabulary words with Latin and Greek roots for students to recognize. Students should be paired up, and each pair receives a bingo card containing a variety of words, as well as game board tokens. The teacher picks up a card and reads it out loud. Each card contains a root, definition and an example. Teams must look on their bingo boards to see if they have a word on the board that is derived from the root word that the teacher read. If a word is present on the board, the team covers that word with a board token. Teams that do not have a word on their board have the option to make their own word. The first team to cover three words in a row -- vertically, horizontally or diagonally -- wins the game.
Scrambled Letters
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Scrambled letters is an activity that requires young learners to spell out new vocabulary words after scrambling up the letters first. Teachers can choose to make the activity on a worksheet, where scrambled words must be unscrambled on the line provided. Or, teachers can make letter cutouts that students get to scramble individually, and then re-create into the correct spelling of the vocabulary word. This activity can be turned into a competitive race, too. Give each player the same cards with letters on them, turned facedown. When the timer starts the kids flip the cards over and have to create the vocabulary word out of the mixed-up letters. The first player to create the word wins.
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References
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