Easy Ways to Build Vocabulary with Young Learners!

Do you ever worry if your kid's vocabulary is where it should be? Are you concerned that your child does not know enough words to read with high comprehension on grade level material? Most parents want their kids to be able to learn new words and use them in their daily interactions, but how do power parents help them to do so? Well I am about to share some super easy ways you can work on vocabulary away from school. Here we go.

Recently my child's teacher has been assigning vocabulary words. This is great but how do power parents help their child learn new vocabulary words? Wait, am I behind? Should I have already been working with my kids on vocabulary?! Well the answer is yes, but the good news is that you have already been putting in the work. Simply talking to your child and having them respond in a two way conversation is technically building vocabulary. I mean as long as you are not doing the whole goo-goo gah-gah routine you should be good. But I wanted to share some cool tips for intentionally building vocabulary with your kids; because intention can change the game for your young learner. So regardless if your child is receiving a vocabulary list at school or you need to come up with new words on your own, building vocabulary is one skill you don’t want your kids to miss out on.

Before we move on to the fun ways you can build vocabulary at home. I wanted to give you some teacher insider information. Educadors view vocabulary in what we call tiers or levels. When it comes to teaching vocabulary to students, typically the decision on what words to teach and how to teach them is based on what tier the word falls into. There are three vocabulary tiers. TIer 1 are words that most students are familiar with within their daily conversations (door, run, happy). In other words, tier 1 contains words that students will typically encounter outside of an academic setting without being intentionally taught. Tier 2 are high frequency words that students can use in several different content or subject areas (worry, knowledge, dangle). Students will likely encounter these words often no matter what they read. Tier 3 is filed with content specific vocabulary (denominator, photosynthesis, gavel). This means that these words are not very common and will only come up when engaged in a very particular subject matter.

Now that is out of the way. Our power parent tip is to focus at home on tier 2 vocabulary which will give your kids a variety of ways to express themselves in many different situations. By helping your child work on tier 2 vocabulary words you can help them expand their speaking, reading and writing skills. Now if your child is receiving vocabulary words at school then you can use the tips I’m about to give you with those words. However, if you are not receiving a list from school then the easiest way to find tier 2 vocabulary words is just to pre-read or scan what your child is currently reading. You will notice words that your child is not familiar with and use those words to make a short list. Don’t overwhelm yourself or your child. Pick 3 to 5 words to focus on that week and use the following strategies to help your child really adopt those words into their personal vocabulary.

Alright here we go!

1. Make flashcards: You can go old school and use a regular pack of index cards or you can get really creative and use color cardstock or printing paper to make them as big as you want. You can put the vocabulary word on one side and the definition on the other. For a fun switch up you can put the vocabulary word on one card and put the definition on another in order to set up a memory/match game where you and your child can try to flip the cards over and match the vocabulary to definition.

2. Create sentences: You can work with your child to create sentences using their vocabulary words. For younger children this can be done verbally and older children can practice writing the sentences down. You can use a sheet of paper to write the sentence down, or you can have your young learner use sentence strips for more fun. You definitely want to be active here and provide sample sentences to give your kids an idea of how this works. Using the word correctly in a sentence is the goal.

3. Draw it out: Drawing pictures to help remember the word will definitely help your child gain a deeper understanding of the new vocabulary words. For example let's say the new word is concerned. Having your child draw out a picture of a person who may be concerned who may be in a worrisome situation (can't find their dog) will definitely add context around that word.

4. Use it- Last, but not least, the most obvious way to learn vocabulary is to use it in your daily interactions with your child. Again this is why we encourage you to look at tier 2 words is because they are words you and your child can use in everyday situations. Make it a game to see how many times you and your child can use your new vocabulary words in a day. A little competition is always a fun way to forget that they are learning.

Well Power parents that is it! I hope that these strategies will help give you and your child a boost when it comes to practicing vocabulary words at home. Remember that vocabulary is not a school thing it's a life thing. Help our kids express themselves using a variety of words will add clarity to their communication. Thank you for tuning in to power parent and remember smart starts at home.