Vocabulary. It’s essential no matter what topic you’re studying. But we often fall victim to the same boring activities. To combat that, we’ve pulled together a list of 8 cool activities to keep your students engaged as you help them review vocabulary terms.
- Art competition. Divide students into small groups and let each group draw a picture to represent a specific vocabulary term. Then have the whole class vote on the best one. Remember: voting for the winning drawing should be based on artistry AND its portrayal of the vocabulary term.
- Act it out. Allow students to work together in small groups and create a skit to describe their word. Have the rest of the class guess which word the group portrayed. Remember: the acting group can’t say the word in their skit!
- Play Science Buzz. To create a game-like atmosphere, edit our template to work for any set of vocabulary terms. Remember: Don’t say the forbidden words!
- Whiteboard race. Divide the class into small groups and give each group a small whiteboard and dry erase marker. As the teacher calls out the definition, the groups write the term. Whichever group correctly identifies the word first, gets the point. Remember: groups must talk quietly so another group doesn’t steal the correct term!
- Collage it. Pull out the old magazines and let students find a variety of images to represent vocabulary terms. Remember: they have to be able to explain how every image portrays that word!
- Creative writing. Who can incorporate the vocabulary terms into a (fictional or non-fictional) story? Remember: give the students an entire list and allow them to chose a certain number of terms for their story.
- Tweet it. Can your students explain the definition in their own words? What about in 140 characters or less? Remember: bonus points if you can effectively use hashtags!
- In the news. Can your students incorporate vocabulary terms into current events? Allow students to use newspapers (or access credible news sites online) and find current event articles similar to their vocabulary term. Then have the students add one sentence using their vocabulary word. For example: if a current vocabulary term is the word habitat, students could find an article discussing conservation efforts. Then have the students add one sentence using their vocabulary word. Remember: this activity helps students think about when their terms are used in the real world. The article doesn’t need to have their specific vocabulary term already within its content, it just needs to fit within the scope of that word.
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LearnEd Notebooks provides teachers and students with an innovative notebooking solution. We specialize in providing educators with a unique curriculum that allows you to break free from conventional methods of instruction and spend more time on labs and inquiry-based science. We provide the framework of an interactive notebook with the flexibility of teaching strategies that seamlessly integrate with each teacher’s own methods of instruction. Our complete programs include printed student notebooks, digital presentations, and access to teacher resources — each focusing on diverse learning styles and engaging instructional strategies.
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