Top Tips for building vocabulary at home
- Notice new words when you’re reading or listening. Talk about the importance of a large vocabulary and make an effort to learn new words.
- Talk about what to do when discovering unknown words. Don’t just skip them! Try using context clues or other resources to find the meaning, like a child-friendly dictionary.
- Read. A lot! Read all sorts of books, signs on the wall, directions, recipes… A wide variety of reading material will expose kids to a wide variety of new words.
- Try to find concrete examples of new words for them whenever possible to make meaning more clear.
- Interact with the words in some way. Get them to draw their meaning. Act them out. Make them come alive so they will remember them.
- Focus on learning the right kinds of words. Pick words that are more complex or descriptive versions of common words that kids already know.
(For example, descriptive adjectives and verbs.) - Focus on kid-friendly definitions and examples of new words rather than complicated dictionary-style definitions. Using words in a sentence or a rhyme will help commit it to their memory.
- Learn common prefixes and suffixes to SUPER SIZE vocabulary knowledge. (eg. happy / unhappy) When they learn one word part, they will begin to easily recognise many more words with the same word parts
Enjoy,
The TalkHQ Family
