Teaching Vocabulary in Kindergarten

A couple of weeks ago I shared about an incredible teaching conference I attended. 

Read more about that here. 

One of my favorite sessions was Cara Carroll's outstanding presentation on teaching vocabulary.

Cara stressed that systematic, explicit instruction is key.
She also shared that students need to work with the words many times before they become a part of their working vocabulary.

I couldn't wait to try some of her strategies with my growing readers. 

I have been absolutely blown away with how my students have reacted.

I introduced words through a fun word detective activity.

It was very fun, and certainly left an impression on the students. 

You can read more about this activity on Cara's blog.

Cara stressed giving students MANY opportunities to interact with the words. 

Here are just some of the ways we have worked with our words:

practiced using them verbally

I recorded their examples so they could see the word in print again.

We also practiced showing the word meanings in our reading notebooks: 

When I challenged the students to write 100 words on our 100th day...

divvy

lair

schema

and

onomotopeia 

were the very first words on our chart!!

I thought it would be fun to have WOW word Wednesday. 

What kindergarten student doesn't love a microphone?

The students could act out, sing, or do a little speech about one of our vocabulary (wow!) words...

This was the HIGHLIGHT of my week!!!!!
For our very first try, I was impressed. 

I promise to get better footage next time, but here are a few amazing word nerds performing:

Create a picture slideshow

Word experts. 

Choose 4 of your favorite vocabulary words and illustrate the meaning. 

Thank you, Cara, for reminding me how 
powerful vocabulary can be!

Here are some other fun vocabulary ideas I have pinned:

Next professional read for me?

I am looking forward to continuing to challenge my students and learn more about vocabulary instruction.