Vocabulary games and activities for primary level Peter Lucantoni

Peter Lucantoni Started teaching in 1979 in UK, MA TESOL University of Edinburgh, lived and worked in Europe and Middle East, now based in Cyprus Author, Educational Consultant & Teacher Trainer for Cambridge University Press Cambridge TKT, CELTYL, CELTA & DELTA trainer and Cambridge CELTYL assessor Examiner for Cambridge ESOL speaking examinations

What are these? k ʊ ə b ɪ æ

Make a word Use these phonemes to create one complete word: krv ʊ əbəj ɪ læ vəkæbj ʊ lər ɪ

Make a word How many individual words can you make from ‘ vocabulary ’? For example: cab

Which of these vocabulary items could you give to students to make words from? Give reasons for your choices paragraph transport cotton chocolate Is this a good vocabulary activity? Why/not? For which level/s? Make a word

When students travel, they don’t carry grammar books, they carry dictionaries Professor Stephen Krashen, British Council conference, Milan 1997

Children hear adults use words as discrete units, eg, ball, juice, dog(gie) Children ask what words mean & develop understanding In reading, the word is key to building up knowledge & skills Infants go through a period of rapid vocabulary growth Developing meanings

Learning to point coincides with rapid increase in noun acquisition Acquisition occurs through seeing & touching Children may use same words as adults but with different meanings (Vygotsky) Word meanings are dynamic, not static Developing meanings

Acquisition of meaning takes longer than acquisition of spoken form (Locke) Production races ahead of comprehension Vocabulary development is not only about acquisition, but also knowledge Developing meanings

In this activity you are going to change one letter in a word in order to create a new word Pictures are used as support in making the new words Look at the example first: Letter change activity

box boy toy

Hatch & Brown identify 5 essential steps in vocabulary learning: 1. Input 2. Clear image 3. Learning meaning 4. Making connection between forms & meanings 5. Using the words Teaching & learning

guess meaning using all information in a picture or text note grammatical information about a word based on the way it is used note similarities with L1 remember where word encountered previously group words with other similar words, lexical sets, etc Learning strategies

12 walletmilk pencil casemoney cartonpen money pen milk Where does it go? activity

Take a variety of objects into the classroom, as in the examples Students then connect the objects, for example: wallet + money Next, students can say and write answers to questions, for example: What goes in a wallet? Money Where does it go? activity

grandmother, grandson, grandchild, son, sister, aunt, cousin, uncle, dad, daughter, Mr, mum, grandparent, Mrs, parent, grandfather, brother, wife, husband She grandmother ……………….. He ……………….. ………………. Family circles activity

model strategies – how? teach sub-skills useful in applying strategies – how? use classroom activities to encourage use of strategies – how? get learners to reflect on what they have learned – how? Teachers should …

a student's maximum level of reading comprehension is determined by their knowledge of words this word knowledge allows students to comprehend text teachers can explicitly teach word meanings to improve comprehension Remember that …

Here are three words: mountain, dinosaur, medal Which adjectives could you use to describe the three pictures? Make a list for each picture Adjectives activity

Look at these adjectives from a primary course: plastic, strong, healthy, endangered, famous, small, dangerous, beautiful, extinct, old, important, friendly Which of these adjectives could you use to describe each picture? Write a short description for each picture. You can only use the adjectives from this activity. Draw three pictures! Adjectives activity

You are going to read a short text about extinction (from Kid’s Box 5, Cambridge University press, 2009) Before you read, make a list of five words which you think will appear in the text, for example, old. Here is the first paragraph: EXTINCTION – Animals can become extinct when all of their species or family die. When an animal is in danger of extinction we call it an endangered species. Prediction activity Kid’s Box 5 pg 68

A species can become extinct because of many different things: more animals eat it, sudden changes in the weather, natural disasters, new diseases, and the actions of people. The most famous extinct animals are the dinosaurs which died out about 65 million years ago. People have different ideas about why the dinosaurs became extinct. Kid’s Box 5 pg 68

Give me another word for ‘pretty’. What’s the opposite of ‘wet’? My brother is 2 metres – he’s very.... You can swim here in the summer This is made from milk. At the end of each arm I have a.... It lives in the sea and has eight legs. Broken words

w othes ess appy ghurt ble et wet

Where’s the banana? activity

Listen carefully! On your worksheet, colour the fruit Now, find the fruit in the picnic picture and colour each piece the same colour as in the individual fruit pictures Where’s the banana?

Hatch & Brown identify 5 essential steps in vocabulary learning: 1. Input 2. Clear image 3. Learning meaning 4. Making connection between forms & meanings 5. Using the words Teaching & learning

Summary Vocabulary is fundamental in language learning Early vocabulary learning may be ineffective if words are not consolidated and used regularly It should not be assumed that learners know what they have been taught. They know what they have learnt Words must be linked with meaning/s Words need to be recycled in different texts and contexts to keep them active