Supersize Your Vocabulary: Interactive Vocabulary Activity

Please tell me you Pinterest!  If you don't, you must go now -- do not delay!  There is a plethora of fabulous ideas -- patiently waiting for you to discover them.  Believe me, it will help you develop your own successful strategies for your classroom!

As I browsed through Pinterest one evening looking for ideas of good "stuff" from great educators, I came across a bulletin board idea from smeckenseducation.com which utilized French fry containers from a fast food restaurant; it invited kiddos to "beef up their writing by challenging them to supersize their sentences."  And then BOOM!  It hit me!  Yes, it happened just like that; Pinterest will do that to you!  I thought:  "I can do this with my next unit on Vocabulary!"  

One of our standards challenges students to incorporate robust vocabulary lessons that introduce my 10th graders to one of the most beautiful resources created by mankind:  The Thesarus.

To introduce the lesson, I decided that I would challenge my kiddos with an interactive bulletin board that invites them to SUPERSIZE YOUR VOCABULARY!! 

At first, I was a bit unsure as to the overall appeal to this activity.  Think about it:  These kids are surrounded with fast food advertisements wherever they go!  Many frequent the establishments once -- maybe even twice a day!  Some of them even spend several hours each week working at the very same establishments I was about to feature on the walls of their own classroom haven.  However, I plodded on, willing to give it a try.  If it didn't work, then I could file it in my "lesson learned" folder in my mind, but if it did...Hmmmmmmm...

Once I take down this title, I'll probably laminate it so it
can be used for many, many, many years to come!

CREATING THE BOARD'S TITLE:  I began pasting pre-cut letters to a base of copy paper. As I needed a little more base, I joined another piece of paper with a strip of tape on the back -- thus, creating one long, solid, reusable title.  I hate wasting resources, don't you?  Centering the title at the top where the title should be placed, I stapled it to the board.

LAYING OUT THE FRY "POCKETS":  If I were a carpenter, I would have carefully measured once, measured twice, and perfectly executed the next step; however, I'm an English teacher, so I eyeballed the center of the board (There's actually a screw in the frame that helps me with this), and I centered the first piece of cardstock an inch-or-so (Yes -- another precise unit of measurement I often use when decorating) above my border.  I left a few inches between each piece of cardstock and layed out both the horizontal and vertical rows filling in the area of the board not taken by the title. Fortunately, with the mistakes I made by my imprecise measurements (I can literally HEAR my math-teacher mother rolling her eyes at me), I was able to allow space to include an area for directions, so it all worked out!  To act as pockets, I used one regular-size fry box per piece of cardstock and attached it to the cardstock two staples for stability.

You could probably use a computer to print these words under
each box; I found that it was just as easy to hand write them.

Wait -- where did I get the fry boxes?  Don't worry -- It didn't take months of indulging in the golden deliciousness of the tasty treats; I simply requested a donation form from my local fast food establishment and in about two weeks, I was in business!  

CREATING THE FRIES:  What would this project be without a few french fries?  

1. Count the number of fry boxes that were attached to the board.  
2. Select basic, simple, first-draft words -- one word per box. Write these words on the cardstock below the fry box on the bulletin board.  Leave one box at the bottom blank to serve as your "home-base" so that even wheelchair-bound or vertically-challenged students can participate in the activity.
3. Cut 1" x 5" strips of yellow cardstock -- enough for 4-5 strips per word; these strips become the "fries." 



I ended up trimming these fries so
that they wouldn't "droop".

4. Using a thesarus, select 3-4 common "super-sized" words that enhance the word choice, and write each word on a strip -- one word per fry.  Select 1 or 2 challenging words that students might not recognize -- one word per fry; this is where you "trick" the students into talking about them or even (heaven-forbid) looking them up!  I suggest that you have five (5) total fries for each box. 

HINT:  These words and fries can be changed out as the year progresses!  Instead of words and synonyms, you could feature characters and traits, dates and events that occured, main ideas and details -- stop me now before I go on and on and on!

DIRECTIONS:  Students can now begin to play, and believe me -- they will!  Post the directions and challenge them to go above and beyond with a bonus activity.  My directions were pretty simple:

1. Match the fry to the word.  
2. There are 5 fries per word.  
3. Before you look them up, work together to discover the meaning.  (Place a classroom thesarus close by for their reference).  

OFFER A BONUS:  Once students have figured out the correct fries for each box (Hint:  You can create an answer key but pull the incorrect words only, pronounce the word, and have the student research to figure out the correct placement; heaven forbid -- don't tell them the word!  Make them discover it on their own!), challenge them with a bonus activity.  I gave them a few choices:  

• alphabetize the fries in each box and write them down
• find antonyms and create a t-chart using the two boxes



"Oooh!  What's that?  Can we do that?  Can we do it now?"
During the first five minutes of class for three days straight, these
four kiddos worked on matching the fries to the boxes.  Each day,
they improved their timing and by that third day, they were
ready to complete the bonus activity!  ...and they DID!

• use connotation to categorize the words from a box on a paint chip (the type from a home improvement store that shows shades of a possible color)  -- the most profound connotation should be written in the darkest shade 

For the bonus activity, there are as many possibilities as you can imagine!  My suggestion -- check out Pinterest!

CONNECTION TO CAREER:  Critical thinking, teamwork, and pushing to finish the task at hand are all skills in today's workforce. This activity achieves these goals and more!

(Originally posted on one of my other blogs on December 16, 2014).