| Children Are Voracious Vocabulary Learners
Children love to play with interesting new words. Think of the vocabulary we develop within our favorite science explorations. You have children who want to be paleontologists, entomologists and ornithologists when they grow up!
| Science Topic |
Vocabulary – Just a beginning |
| Animals & Habitats |
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| Bats: |
sonar, cave, den, nests, burrows, wild/domestic, mammal, echolocate, nocturnal, guano |
| Butterflies: |
migration, metamorphosis, chrysalis, cocoon, symmetry |
| Whales: |
mammals, migrate, blubber, flipper, fluke, blowhole |
| Penguins: |
incubate, Antarctica, brood, pouch, waddle, fledglings, regurgitate |
| Bears: |
hibernate, cubs, grizzly, polar, omnivorous |
| Cats: |
feline, claws, fangs, carnivorous |
| Plants - Growth/Change |
sprouts, seeds, roots, photosynthesis, deciduous |
| Colors/Rainbow |
prism, primary, opaque, transparent, chartreuse, aqua, indigo, violet “I saw the lovely arch of rainbow span the sky…” |
| Sinking/Floating |
density, buoyancy |
| Water/Ice/Snow |
sleet, hail, freezing, melting, evaporation, condensation, precipitation |
| Weather |
meteorologists, jet stream, barometric pressure, high pressure, hurricane, tornado, thunder, “It was a dark and stormy night…” “One misty moisty morning…” “The air is like a butterfly…” |
| Solar System |
revolve, terrestrial, gravitational pull, galaxy, Milky Way |
| Seasons |
winter solstice, equinox |
| Chemistry |
“quivery semi-solid mass” (gel) |
Sign Language Vocabulary – dominant, non-dominant, congruent, pictorial, mnemonic, manually, fingerspelling, kinesthetic, iconic, bilingual, visual-gestural language.
- Discuss the meaning of key words of The Pledge of Allegiance (pledge, allegiance, republic, indivisible, liberty) while signing to enhance the meaning.
- Sing and sign the song, America the Beautiful. Discuss the new words: spacious, amber, majesty, brotherhood.
- Play the antonym, synonym and homonym game. Make lists of synonyms for frequently used words: wonderful, fantastic, magnificent, fabulous, amazing.
- Keep a thesaurus and a sign language dictionary in the classroom. Use them.
- Always explore new vocabulary in literature: Remember the sparrows in The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter “… who flew to him in great excitement and implored him to exert himself.”
- Introduce value words like perseverance, loyalty, and friendship.
- Share the beautiful language of poetry.
- Buy a large type Webster Dictionary for your class – and use it.
- Teach children about fiction, non-fiction, metacognition (thinking about our thinking), schema and inferences.
How do you encourage voracious vocabulary learners?
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