We LOVE Words Wednesdays!

In our district this year, we are focusing on vocabulary and vocabulary development.  I wanted to incorporate this in a few different ways in the classroom.  One activity that the students and I are doing are reading different Andrew Clements books in book group and focusing on just vocabulary in each of the chapters.  We are also using comprehension strategies and doing fluency work in small group instruction  but when the students work independently they are just working on vocabulary (definitions, usage, etc.).  Students are also taking part in a listening center two days a week.  Each book has been carefully chosen and the groups have been carefully developed.  The books we are reading are:  The School Story, No Talking, Troublemaker and Lost and Found.

On to the next idea!  How can I do a more intense focus of vocabulary?  I found these wonderful vocabulary packs (Jargon Journals).  I decided to do a book a month depending on the focus in Reading Workshop for that month.  What was I going to call this great idea:  "We LOVE Words Wednesday".

On the first Wednesday of every month I introduce and read the new book during our morning meeting time.  This month it was the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  Then during the first few minutes of our Writing Workshop time, they create a word hat.  I would love to find some really inexpensive baseball caps that the kids could hand write words on so we could add to it every month (maybe next year?).  We used paper hats instead (that we already made and in my closet).  Then we discuss the definition for each word.

The second Wednesday of every month, we focus on the definition and what the word means to us.  The students made a section in their Writer's notebooks for "We LOVE Words Wednedays".  I also pulled out four other words from the story that were "extra" words.  We wrote these words into this section of our notebooks and then cut and glued the other word cards in.

The third Wednesday of the month, we will be working on parts of speech and syllable work.

The fourth Wednesday of the month, we will be taking the quick word assessment (and finishing up anything that needs to be completed from the other weeks).  Then the cycle starts over again!

This easy integration allows me the ability to integrate new vocabulary and more intensely without getting way over my head.  I am really excited!