Vocabulary Activities
Teaching Vocabulary
Are you looking for a way to make learning vocabulary more enjoyable for your students? Vocabulary plays an important role in our teaching, but sometimes has a reputation for being a bit boring. It certainly doesn’t need to be that way, and there are many strategies and tools available! This post will cover five different vocabulary activities that can be used with any vocabulary set, no matter what you teach. The best part is each activity is little to no prep on your end!
Middle School Vocabulary Activities
Frayer Model
This classic activity can be used to help students think about a word in multiple ways. The official model has the vocabulary word set in the middle. The rest of the model is filled with a definition, and image, as well as an example and non-example. Any vocabulary words work with this model, so the options are endless. However, this activity can be time-consuming for students, so we don’t recommend using a ton of vocabulary words unless you’ve set aside time to do so.
While we’ve just described the official Frayer Model, we prefer the model that includes the official definition, a definition in the student’s own words, using the word in a sentence, and then an image. We’ve created a resource with both options that you can find here.
One-Pager Templates
With one-pager templates, your students can pair their vocabulary words with images, definitions, or symbols that relate to that word. We’ve created this flexible resource that includes many different design options. You simply give students the design that corresponds to the number of vocabulary words they’re working on. Depending on whether you use the digital or printable option, you can even let your students choose the design they want to work with! This activity allows students to work with their creativity while getting a better understanding of the vocabulary.
Hexagonal Thinking
Hexagonal thinking is a relatively new method or activity that helps students make connections between different ideas and vocabulary words. While we like the general idea of linking vocabulary words to other vocabulary words, we’ve found the original version of hexagonal thinking activities to be a bit too unstructured, at least at the middle school level. Instead, we’ve decided to create this more structured alternative that helps students build on the original idea. This activity is meant to help your students tap into higher-order thinking. Since your students must come up with these related words, it forces them to dive deeper into their understanding of each word.
Graphic Organizer
If you’re looking for something easy and straightforward, we’ve created this graphic organizer that’s specifically made to work with your textbook or reading passages. In this activity, students will write out the vocabulary word, definition, and related words that connect to the original word. In this respect, it’s similar to the hexagonal thinking activity, but more bare bones. You can also adjust the number of boxes to correlate to the number of vocabulary words students are working with. While this resource may be simple, sometimes the basics are what can end up being most helpful!
Vocabulary Games
A fun resource that’s great for assessment or review are these three vocabulary games. The first is our vocabulary dice game where students roll dice to move around the board. Whatever number they get they must complete the task to move forward. It’s a perfect group game or even a class game with teams!
The second game is our picture guessing game, set up similar to Pictionary. This game can be played in groups or pairs where one student draws an image and the others guess what the word is.
The final game included is a password game. Students work in pairs or as a class to guess which vocabulary word is the password to a one-word clue. More one-word clues can be given until the vocabulary word is guessed. The sooner students guess the word, the more points are awarded.
Vocabulary Teaching Strategies
All of these activities can be done with any set of vocabulary words, and if you are interested in everything we shared today, consider checking out our Vocabulary Activities Bundle! This bundle contains all 5 activities mentioned above in one single place to use effortlessly (and for a discounted price!). Make teaching vocabulary more enjoyable for you and your students!
If you liked this post, consider watching the corresponding video here. If you’re interested in more vocabulary activities, check out our blog post on 8 Social Studies Vocabulary Activities.
Are you looking for some new teaching ideas to engage your students in your social studies class? If so, you’ll love our FREE guide: 5 Creative Projects to Ignite Student Engagement in Your Social Studies Class. These activities have both printable and digital options and can work for any social studies subject!
