Roots of Learning » building vocabulary

A Painting Project…

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:47:03 +0000

I have decided to paint (not plant, paint) a large tree in my formal living room (which functions as a rumpus room for the kids). I am going to do this with ‘magnetic’ paint so that the tree becomes a magnet board. My plan is to use it for a variety of instructional purposes for my kids – here are my initial ideas:

1. Trace our family tree (attach magnetic cards with people’s names onto the tree).

2. Trace word origins (Latin roots, suffixes, prefixes, word ‘families’)

3. Display rhyming words or words that follow a phonics rule for my little ones.

4. Classify things (“What doesn’t belong on this tree?”) using pictures for my littlest one.

I’d love to hear if anyone else has done something as harebrained as this and, if so, what the results were. Once I get it together, I’ll take pictures and post them – and I’ll send an update to the blog.

- Heather

Exploring Word Origins

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:01:56 +0000

When I took Latin in high school, I just loved it (ok, I’m a Latin geek) because it was like a wonderful puzzle that allowed me to chip away at the English language. With each new piece of vocabulary, I was gaining a key to the kingdom, so to speak, for my own language. Each Latin root word provided me with exponentially more English vocabulary. In a nutshell, that experience served me well. As a teacher, I have tried to pass it along to my students and to my own kids.

I created this graphic organizer for folks to use with their kids. I’ll be using it with my 9 year old this summer (or sooner). It will be available as part of my free summer e-course, coming soon!

- Heather

PS – I just edited this blog entry to include a link to the .pdf version of the Word Genealogy Tree graphic organizer – hope it helps!

Teaching the Brain to Read

admin — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:17:57 +0000

I just finished reading a book by Judy Willis entitled Teaching the Brain to Read: Strategies for Improving Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension.

I highly recommend it for teachers and parents interested in how reading is learned and how we build meaning and gain comprehension.

Find out more at ASCD.org.

An Online Tool for Vocabulary Building

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:53:01 +0000

If you are looking for an alternative to a paper dictionary, or if you would like to find a rhyming dictionary, thesaurus, and traditional dictionary all in one place, complete with audio tools that allow you to hear the pronunciation of the word, check out www.wordcentralcom. It is a site from Merriam-Webster and, while its offerings are not as comprehensive as a collegiate dictionary, it is a great tool for elementary and middle schoolers who are in need of suggestions of synonyms in writing, rhyming words for poetry, or an online dictionary reference. Happy word hunting!

- Heather