If you teach English Language Learners you know how important vocabulary development is. It can be hard however, to come up with new ways to practice vocabulary. You want to keep your students interested in practicing their vocabulary, and the same old activities just aren't cutting it. So here are 10 different activities you can do with any vocabulary list!
BINGO
The first one is simple, and maybe one of the activities you already use. BINGO is a great game for all sorts of skills, and when it comes to vocabulary there are all sorts of ways to differentiate the game to fit your learners. Even starting with just varying the size of your BINGO board can help fit the game to your students. If you put images on your BINGO boards you can use words, definitions, synonyms, or antonyms for the clues. On a BINGO board of ocean words as shown below, rather than calling out simply 'octopus' you can give a clue such as 'this animal has eight arms'. BINGO is a game that all kids love to play!
Memory
Memory is one of my favorite ways to practice vocabulary. And, just like BINGO, it can be differentiated to fit your students. In the game of memory children flip over 2 cards, and see if they can find a match. You can make matches of picture and word, or word and definition, or word and synonym... or any combination that gets kids engaged and thinking. I like to glue my memory pieces to pieces of scrapbook paper so they aren't see-through, then I will laminate and cut them out.
Memory Game from my Ocean Vocabulary Units
Go Fish!
Everyone knows the classic game of Go Fish!, and it can be used to practice vocabulary as well. You can use index cards, or even playing cards to create a deck of vocabulary cards. You can even use the cards from your memory games! Depending on your students you can make the cards with matching pictures, or a picture and word, or a picture and definition. Then hand out the cards and start playing! You'll need to make sure you have enough vocabulary words in your deck to give each student 5 cards, and still have a pond of cards left over. To keep everyone engaged with the game, smaller groups are better - think 2 to 4 players.
Charades
Charades is a great game to review a lot of vocabulary, maybe at the end of the quarter or semester. Simply place the vocabulary words in a container, then ask students to pull out a word and act it out without speaking. If you've used Total Physical Response to teach any of these vocabulary words, don't be surprised if those motions come up again. You can make this game into a competition by splitting your group into teams and adding a timer. If a team can't guess in the allotted time, the other team can steal the point!
Pictionary
Pictionary works just like charades, but instead of acting it out, students draw it out. Again, Pictionary works better with a large group of review vocabulary, as opposed to a small list. Add all the words into a container, then ask a student to pull one out, draw it, and the rest of the group guesses what they are drawing. To save on paper, have students draw on an erasable surface, like a white board or smartboard. This can be played in teams as well.
Password
Another game you can play with vocabulary is based on the old gameshow Password - where one student knows the word and tries to get another student to say the word by giving one word clues. This is a great way to practice synonyms. For the word 'waves' a student may give the clues 'water', 'crashing', or 'surf'. This can also be played in teams. The first team to guess the word based on the clues gets the point.
Flashcards
This is a simple way to practice vocabulary. Have students create vocabulary flashcards that they can use to practice their words. You can decide how the cards should be set up. Maybe students will put a word on one side, and a picture on the other. Maybe a word and definition. Maybe a cloze sentence on one side and word on the other. For example: "The _________ dove deep under water with the oxygen tank," "Scuba Diver". Then the flashcards can be used individually or in groups to review the words. At the end of the unit you can put them in a box or folder of vocabulary words to refer back to.
Wordsearch
Do your students love doing wordsearches? Mine always did, and word searches are a great way to practice spelling vocabulary words. You can use an online wordsearch generator to help you create one. This one from Education.com lets you title your wordsearch, and gives you an answer key. They also have some fun thematic borders you can put on your words if that suits you! Then give students a highlighter and let them work on finding the words!
Word Search from my Ocean Vocabulary Units
Crossword Puzzle
Crossword puzzles are another great independent activity for practicing vocabulary. And it can be differentiated for your students. You can use an online crossword puzzle creator like this one, again from Education.com to find a set up for your puzzle. You can choose to give the definition, synonyms, or antonyms as your clue. If you want to use picture clues, you can simply put the vocabulary word into the generator twice (octopus, octopus) then cut off the word clues and add in picture clues before giving it to your students.
Crossword Puzzle from my Ocean Vocabulary Units
Vocabulary Hunt
This game is a chance for students to find their vocabulary words in books, newspapers, or other media. If you are teaching a thematic unit find picture books related to that topic, and then ask students to look through the books for their vocabulary words. Ask them to keep a tally of how many times they find each word. This can be a great way to expose students to higher level texts, without the pressure of being able to read every word. You can do this during a read-aloud too! During one of your readings of a text ask students to put their fingers on their noses, or hands on their heads, etc, whenever they hear a vocabulary word. This will help keep them engaged with the read-aloud, and let you know if they are paying attention.
Want some help getting these activities going in your classroom? Enter your e-mail below and I will send you an editable PowerPoint you can use to create many of these activities for your own classes.
Are there any vocabulary activities your students love that I missed? Did you try one of these activites?Share them with my by commenting or connecting with me by email, michelle@teachingeternity.com, or find me on instagram, @TeachingEternity.
