That Boost Reading and Writing Skills

144 Pages·2009·6.08 MB·English

That Boost Reading and Writing Skills
by Immacula A. Rhodes
Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources
To Alan and Amber,
You give definition to my life.
“
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
”
and he will make your paths straight.
—Proverbs 3: 5-6
Scholastic Inc. grants teachers permission to photocopy the reproducible activity and game
pages from this book for classroom use. No other part of this publication may be reproduced
in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of
the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway,
New York, NY 10012.

Editor: Joan Novelli
Cover and interior design by Holly Grundon
Interior illustrations by Teresa Anderko
ISBN-13: 978-0-439-66545-2
ISBN-10: 0-439-66545-0
Copyright © 2009 by Immacula A. Rhodes
Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Scholastic Inc.
Published by Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the U.S.A.
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Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Contents
Introduction ................................................... 4
How to Use This Book ............................................ 5
12 Terrific Tips ................................................. 8
Connections to the Standards ...................................... 10
Resources and References ........................................ 10
Games and Activities
Definition Dive (Word Exploration) ................................. 11
Word Wiz (Word Exploration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Pharoah’s Prefix Pyramid (Prefixes With Root Words) ................... 20
Number Prefix-O! (Number and Quantity Prefixes) .................... 27
Spin a Suffix (Suffixes With Root Words) ............................ 35
Suffix Surfer (Suffixes With Root Words) ............................. 41
Root Suits (Latin Roots) .......................................... 48
Cube Words (Latin Prefixes and Roots) .............................. 56
Go Greek! (Greek Prefixes and Roots) ............................... 62
Synonym Scout (Synonyms) ...................................... 67
Antonym Aardvarks (Antonyms) ................................... 72
Opposites Attract (Synonyms and Antonyms) ......................... 80
Double-Duty Words (Multiple-Meaning Words) ....................... 86
Analogy Galaxy (Analogies) ....................................... 92
Heteronym Hive (Heteronyms) ................................... 100
Deal & Draw (Homophones) ..................................... 108
Compound Word Climb (Compound Words) ........................ 114
Onomatopoeia Bingo (Onomatopoeic Words) ........................ 120
Shortcut Word Shop (Clipped Words) .............................. 125
Around the World With Words (Borrowed Words) .................... 132
Supplemental Word Charts and Lists
Prefixes ..................................................... 138
Suffixes ..................................................... 139
Latin Roots .................................................. 140
Greek Roots .................................................. 141
Heteronyms .................................................. 142
Homophone Pairs ............................................. 143
Words Borrowed From Other Languages ............................ 144
Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Introduction
V
ocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills is a
collection of fun, reproducible games and activities designed to support
vocabulary instruction by helping students explore and interact with a wide
range of words—from what they mean and how they’re used to how they are
formed and where they come from. These vocabulary-building games and activities actively
engage students in sharing their word knowledge, exploring word derivatives, analyzing
and building words, developing strategies for recalling and strengthening vocabulary, and
demonstrating what they learn—all skills that promote a broader vocabulary and deeper
word knowledge.
Skills and concepts featured in this book include affixes, Latin and Greek roots,
synonyms, antonyms, multiple meaning words, analogies, heteronyms, homophones,
compound words, and more. As students engage in the activities, they build on prior word
knowledge, use critical thinking skills, make connections to other words and concepts,
and express what they learn in their own words—an important step in demonstrating
true understanding of word meanings and developing “ownership” of words. And, since
various games and activities also involve writing the words, students have opportunities to
strengthen spelling skills in the process.
What the Research Says
The games and activities in this book are designed with current research in mind.
Research shows that explicit vocabulary instruction boosts comprehension and plays a
significant role in student achievement (Beck, Perfetti & McKeown, 1982; National Reading
Panel, 2000). And, as in other areas of learning, active engagement in vocabulary-learning
tasks helps students grow in word knowledge (Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000). Various and
repeated opportunities to think about and use words leads to a deeper understanding
of their meanings and increases the likelihood that students will make those words a
permanent part of their vocabulary repertoire (Beck & McKeown, 2002). Talking about
words and their meanings, becoming aware of relationships among words, discussing the
use of words in context and creating contexts around them, exploring word structures and
origins, and using dictionaries and other reference tools are all important components in
enhancing students’ word consciousness and building their word-learning strategies. In
addition, these types of rich and meaningful language experiences help English Language
Learners understand the meaning and use of words, apply word-learning strategies, and
develop strong English vocabularies (Block & Mangieri, 2006).

Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources
How to Use This Book
The materials in Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading
and Writing Skills engage students in active ways to reinforce and
build vocabulary. After introducing general or content-area vocabulary,
word-analysis skills, or word-building concepts, you can choose the
games or activities that address that area of study and use them to
provide practice that will strengthen and enhance students’ vocabulary
and word-learning strategies.
The materials are ideal for working with students in pairs or small
groups, or for use in learning centers. The game format encourages
students to think out loud, share prior word knowledge and
experiences, and use and discuss how words work in context. Through
exchanging ideas and information, students can better understand
word meanings and uses, expand their vocabularies, and become
more confident about making sense of new words they encounter, or
using new words as they speak and write. While this exchange of knowledge and ideas
is encouraged, students can also use many of the activities individually to practice and
reinforce what they’ve learned. You might also send home the games for students to play
with families and friends. Here’s what you’ll find for each activity:
Players: The number of players listed tells how many players each game
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Materials: Use this list to gather materials needed to prepare and
132
play the game or activity, including any reproducible pages and supplies,
such as markers or dictionaries.
Getting Ready: Use these guidelines to prepare materials and set up the
games and activities.
Teaching Tips: The tips in this section offer suggestions for using the games
and activities, including information related to preparing materials, introducing concepts,
and using the game or activity to enhance or assess learning.

Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Extension Activities: These suggestions provide additional practice in the targeted
skill and provide ways to adapt the activity or materials to further reinforce vocabulary.
Directions for Play: Copy the reproducible Directions for Play for each game and
review them with students before they play. Point out the Playing Tips section, which offers
helpful information. Laminate the Directions for Play if desired and store the directions
with the game. Note that some games and activities invite students to collaborate. This
noncompetitive format encourages students to pool their knowledge, voice their thoughts,
and share ideas.
Teaching To help students really think about words and their meanings, games such as Definition
Dive (page 11) and Word Wiz (page 15) ask students to give examples and non-examples
Tip
of a targeted word. For instance, for the word energetic, students might offer examples
such as active, very lively, hardworking, or on the go. Non-examples might include lazy,
drowsy, or without enthusiasm. Other games, such as Pharoah’s Prefix Pyramid (page 20)
or Go Greek! (page 62), ask students to give examples of how a word is used or to use
it in a sentence. For the word thermometer, for example, a student might respond that a
thermometer tells the temperature. Or, the student might use the word in a sentence, such
as “When we checked the thermometer this morning, it was already 75 degrees!”
Customizing the Games and Activities
The games and activities in this book can easily be
modified to expand their use and provide additional Game Board
practice and reinforcement. Some games include extra re-
(again)
blank game boards and game cards, which you can (nuont-) (bpefroer-e)
customize with new vocabulary. For others, simply mask (tooo vmeur-ch) (to emna-ke) (dniost-)
existing words on the appropriate reproducible pages, then (bmadisl-y) (nino-t) (usnudbe-r) (nimo-t)
make copies and fill in new vocabulary. The charts and Vocabulary Games and Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 by Immacula A. Rhodes. Scholastic Teaching Resources
lists on pages 138–144 are a good source of additional
words, as is vocabulary drawn from classroom lessons and activities.
You can also narrow the scope of some activities by selecting only the words or specific
skills you want to reinforce. To do this, simply use the game cards and components that
you want students to work with, or mask words or sections on the reproducible pages to
help students focus only on particular skills or concepts. For example, you can mask blocks
on the game board for Pharaoh’s Prefix Pyramid (page 22) to reduce the number of prefixes
students will work with.

Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Classroom Management Tips
Following are general tips to help make preparation, use, and
storage a breeze.
Prepare the games and activities in advance or invite students to help you make them.
For durability, laminate the game boards, game cards, spinners, and other
game pieces.
Store each assembled game and game pieces, along with the Directions for
Play, in a gallon-sized resealable plastic bag.
Designate an area to store the games, such as in a vertical file tray or file box,
on a bookshelf, or in a basket at the reading center or other learning center.
Using the Charts and Lists
On pages 138–144, you’ll find charts and lists of prefixes, suffixes, Latin and Greek roots,
heteronyms, homophone pairs, and words borrowed from other languages. You can use
these pages as reference for your own use—they’re a great resource to have on hand whenever
you need to check the meaning of an affix or root or want to share examples of words in one of
these categories. Here are some additional ways you can use them with students:
Use the lists to adapt or expand the activities and games.
Copy, laminate, and display these pages for reference in reading, writing, or literacy centers.
(You might enlarge the pages for this purpose.) Encourage students to browse the charts and
lists, as well, to nurture an interest in language.
Invite students to use the lists (or parts of them) in scavenger hunts. They can search print
materials for particular heteronyms, homophones, words from other languages, or find
words that contain specific affixes or roots. Encourage students to explore how the words
they find are used in different contexts.
Send home copies of the pages to include families in their students’ word-learning activities.
To encourage wordplay, invite students to use the lists of affixes and roots (pages 138–141)
to create their own words. Have them share their words and meanings and demonstrate how
each word might be used. Then ask them to name actual words that have similar word parts,
meanings, and uses. Encourage students to compare the made-up and actual words.

Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources
12 Terrific Tips
Here are useful tips to follow before, during, and after using the games and activities.
Review the materials and directions, and demonstrate how to use each game
1
or activity. Provide suggestions on how to determine the order in which
players take turns, such as rolling a number cube and taking turns in
numerical order.
As students participate in games and activities, encourage interaction and
2
discussion. These active exchanges of information and knowledge enrich
students’ understanding of the meanings and uses of words, and reinforce
and clarify word concepts.
Use the games and activities to build vocabulary with the words
3
provided, as well as with words you (or your students) choose for general
vocabulary study or from literature or content areas. (See Customizing
the Games and Activities, page 6.)
Engage in the activities with students. This can be a fun way to interview
4
and observe students, and informally assess their word knowledge. Conduct
mini-lessons to review the words, skills, or concepts used in each activity or
game as needed.
Encourage students to use the actual words being learned. The more they say
5
and hear a word, the more likely they will incorporate it into their own
vocabulary.
Keep a dictionary and thesaurus on hand. Knowing how to use word
6
reference tools is a skill students need to develop. Guide students in
integrating what they discover in these references with their own knowledge
of words, information they’ve gathered from others, and context clues.

Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Provide students with sticky notes to use during activities and games.
7
Encourage students to jot down words they want to explore further, or
questions that come up about particular words, concepts, or strategies. Follow
up with a Word Talk to share and discuss their discoveries, questions, and
connections. (Students can also flag unfamiliar or intriguing words in the print
materials they read to discuss and explore with the class later.)
Create a word-rich environment with word walls, quote displays, and word
8
games and puzzles. Reinforce and share students’ excitement about
discovering new words and their meanings.
Have students journal about interesting words or phrases they encounter. Ask
9
them to include why the words stuck and how they might use them in their own
conversations and writing activities. Encourage students to add to their journal
entries as they learn more about words already included in them.
Post prompts in the writing center to encourage students to use the words
10
they learn. You can use their writing as part of an assessment.
Look for opportunities to use words (and concepts) featured in the games
11
and activities in class conversations. When students come across an
unfamiliar word, take time to discuss the word and point out strategies that
help them explore its meaning and use. For some words, you might refer
students to a particular game board, answer key, chart, or word list in this
book to help them explore and learn more.
Use the words, skills, and word-building concepts and strategies that are built
12
into the games and activities to teach and reinforce related spelling and
grammar rules. Students can use many of the game cards as flash cards, or
make their own based on words they construct in the activities. You might
place the cards in the writing or spelling center to reinforce particular
vocabulary and related skills.

Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Connections to the Standards
This book is designed to support you in meeting the following reading and writing
standards outlined by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL),
an organization that collects and synthesizes national and state standards.
Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process.
Uses phonetic and structural analysis techniques, syntactic structure, and semantic context to decode
unknown words
Understands level-appropriate sight words and vocabulary, including synonyms, antonyms, homophones,
and multi-meaning words
Uses context clues, definition, restatement, example, and comparison and contrast to verify word meanings
Uses knowledge of analogies to infer the meaning of phrases
Knows denotative and connotative meanings of words
Knows vocabulary related to different content areas and current events
Uses word reference materials, including dictionary and thesaurus
Uses Latin and Greek roots, affixes, and meanings of frequently used foreign words to understand word
meaning
Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions.
Writes in complete sentences
Uses pronouns, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in writing
Spells high frequency and commonly misspelled words
Uses compounds, roots, suffixes, prefixes, and syllable constructions in spelling
Uses a dictionary and other resources to spell words
Source: Kendall, J. S. & Marzano, R. J. (2004). Content knowledge: A compendium of standards and benchmarks for K–12 education. Aurora, CO:
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning. Online database: http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/.
Resources and References
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words Kendall, J. S. & Marzano, R. J. (2004). Content knowledge: A
to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford Press. compendium of standards and benchmarks for K–12 education.
Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and
Beck, I. L., Perfetti, C. A., & McKeown, M. G. (1982). The
Learning. Online database: http://www.mcrel.org/standards-
effects of long-term vocabulary instruction on lexical access and
benchmarks/.
reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74(4),
506–21. McLaughlin, M. & Fisher, L. (2005). Research-based reading
lessons for K–3. New York: Scholastic.
Blachowicz, C. L. Z. & Fisher, P. (2000). Vocabulary instruction.
In M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An
Handbook of reading research (Vol. 3, pp. 503–523). Mahwah, evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on
NJ: Erlbaum. reading and its implications for reading instruction: Report of the
subgroups. (NIH Publication No. 00–4754). Washington, DC:
Block, C. C. & Mangieri, J. N. (2006). The vocabulary-enriched
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
classroom: Practices for improving the reading performance of all
students in grades 3 and up. New York: Scholastic.
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Vocabulary Games & Activities That Boost Reading and Writing Skills © 2009 Immacula A. Rhodes, Scholastic Teaching Resources