Do you want to make your reading stations more fun for your students? Do you want to help them learn new vocabulary words in a way that is engaging and exciting? If so, then you need to check out this guide on how to make vocabulary activities fun! In this post, I will explore several different ways to make learning vocabulary fun and interesting. You will be able to find activities that are perfect for your classroom, no matter what grade level or subject area you teach. So get ready to have some fun with vocabulary!
Task Cards
Everybody has task cards for reading stations. The kids can sometimes get bored with them. There are several ways you can make them more interactive.
Use an old game board with the task cards. When the kids get it right they roll a die and move that many spaces on the board. The first kid to get to the end wins.
Another idea is to try to make your vocabulary review like a carnival game. You can make up some of your own or buy some carnival games at the store. They even have games at the dollar stores. Any game the kids have to get up and move is great. Be creative. Here are a couple of ideas I have done before for vocabulary review in reading stations.
- Duckpond- Let them pull the duck and whatever number is on the bottom is the task card they do.
- Inflatable Tic Tac Toe- when the student gets it right they get to put down an X or O.
- Pencil in a Haystack- put yellow pencils with numbers on them in shredded yellow construction paper. They find a pencil and that is the number of the task they do.
Games
Games are always a huge hit in my classroom. They are great to use for vocabulary review in your reading stations. Below is a list of fun vocabulary activities for kids.
- Lakeshore– Lakeshore has a multitude of folder games and board games that kids can do for vocabulary activities during reading stations. They also have fun online games too.
- Headbanz– You can buy the game or just make your own. My kids love this game. Make a headband with construction paper and put words on index cards. A kid puts the vocabulary card on their head and the other kids give them clues to what the word is.
- Banana Gram– This is such a fun word-making game. It is a lot like Scrabble except they are only using their own grid. The first kid to use all their letters is the winner.
- Vocabulary Roll the Die– There are so many variations on the game. Just type it in Google and so many will come up. They pretty much are all the same. You have a stack of vocabulary words. The students roll a die and depending on what number it lands on they have to do what it says. For example, if they roll a 1 then they have to use the word in a sentence.
I have some free antonym task cards you can download to use with your kids. Just click on the picture below to get these free vocabulary task cards.
I hope you were able to find some new ways to make your vocabulary review fun for your kids. If you are interested in learning more about how to teach vocabulary in whole group you can check out my blog post here.
I also love using Digital Escape Rooms in my workstations. So if you are looking for interactive vocabulary activities, I have a fun context clue digital escape room that your kids will love. Check it out below.
Let me know in the comments how do you make vocabulary fun for your kids.
