My daughter is entering 7th grade this year. Wow! Wow... Wow. All sorts of emotions flood my head. She's a tween. Her academics will be changing this year. She'll be taking 3 classes at co-op (though 1 of them will be taught by me). I have most of her curriculum in place, but I needed a plan for her vocabulary notebook. I use a combination of things because I'm a cheapskate.
1) For grades 6-8, she does 30 pages (1 page per day) from the book 101 Vocabulary Words in Context each year. Then, she works in a vocabulary notebook...
2) Vocabulary Notebook
I was talking with my husband the other day about the Economist. We have a student subscription (which is much cheaper than a normal subscription). He asked if the girls could use it this year as part of their curriculum. And the idea clicked! I am going to have Autumn read 1 article per week. She will highlight the words she doesn't know and then complete a vocabulary worksheet. From that list, I will pick several words for her to complete different vocabulary diagrams for through the week. I will also put a tab in her notebook where she can write down words from other readings for other subjects that she doesn't know. (I tried this out and it turned out that she knew 13 of 15 words I pulled out from 2 articles... so we're going to also have her use Wind in the Willows which is heavy in vocabulary this year.)
(You could use another source that you have in your home besides the economist that is full of rich vocabulary.)
Here's a link to my weekly schedule with the notebook:
https://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/weekly-vocabulary-plan.pdf
Yay!
I downloaded a few free sheets from Teachers Pay Teachers. I couldn't figure out how to link to them, so here are the names of them:
1) Words Worth Knowing Sheet
You can find it here:
https://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/words-worth-knowing-worksheet.pdf
The pdf has 2 pages--only print page 1 when you go to print.
2) Vocabulary Squares by the Idea Cubby This is the only page I'm using from Teachers Pay Teachers after all.
3) Vocabulary Notebook Page:
https://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/vocabularynotebook-page.pdf
So, that's my plan! I'm excited that her notebook is now organized and ready to go.
As a side note, last year, she worked through 240 words every 6th grader needs to know (which she really liked). She also completed the 5th grade book because we discovered this curriculum just this past year. My younger kids also work through these workbooks to increase their vocabulary and the prefixes and suffixes books by practice makes perfect ($5 each and reproducible!) I'm all about less expensive, reproducible books. That's why I've had a hard time swallowing the cost and jumping into Wordly Wise, Word Roots books, or Vocabulary from Classical Roots books. All look nice and if I only had 1 student to purchase books for, I would consider going that route. But, I have 3 and it all adds up...
Added Note:
I had this idea next year to add on another chart and way for her to study vocabulary.
I downloaded these charts:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/vocabulary/pdf/prefixes_suffixes.pdf
plus the Greek and Latin Root Charts from here:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/root-words-roots-and-affixes
If you want a VERY thorough list, you can go HERE.
Another good List.
Here's the worksheet I made to use with the lists: https://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/vocab-word-parts-worksheet.pdf
I am going to use this worksheet for the words I want her to break apart and figure out.
1) For grades 6-8, she does 30 pages (1 page per day) from the book 101 Vocabulary Words in Context each year. Then, she works in a vocabulary notebook...
2) Vocabulary Notebook
I was talking with my husband the other day about the Economist. We have a student subscription (which is much cheaper than a normal subscription). He asked if the girls could use it this year as part of their curriculum. And the idea clicked! I am going to have Autumn read 1 article per week. She will highlight the words she doesn't know and then complete a vocabulary worksheet. From that list, I will pick several words for her to complete different vocabulary diagrams for through the week. I will also put a tab in her notebook where she can write down words from other readings for other subjects that she doesn't know. (I tried this out and it turned out that she knew 13 of 15 words I pulled out from 2 articles... so we're going to also have her use Wind in the Willows which is heavy in vocabulary this year.)
(You could use another source that you have in your home besides the economist that is full of rich vocabulary.)
Here's a link to my weekly schedule with the notebook:
https://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/weekly-vocabulary-plan.pdf
Yay!
I downloaded a few free sheets from Teachers Pay Teachers. I couldn't figure out how to link to them, so here are the names of them:
1) Words Worth Knowing Sheet
You can find it here:
https://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/words-worth-knowing-worksheet.pdf
The pdf has 2 pages--only print page 1 when you go to print.
2) Vocabulary Squares by the Idea Cubby This is the only page I'm using from Teachers Pay Teachers after all.
3) Vocabulary Notebook Page:
https://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/vocabularynotebook-page.pdf
So, that's my plan! I'm excited that her notebook is now organized and ready to go.
As a side note, last year, she worked through 240 words every 6th grader needs to know (which she really liked). She also completed the 5th grade book because we discovered this curriculum just this past year. My younger kids also work through these workbooks to increase their vocabulary and the prefixes and suffixes books by practice makes perfect ($5 each and reproducible!) I'm all about less expensive, reproducible books. That's why I've had a hard time swallowing the cost and jumping into Wordly Wise, Word Roots books, or Vocabulary from Classical Roots books. All look nice and if I only had 1 student to purchase books for, I would consider going that route. But, I have 3 and it all adds up...
Added Note:
I had this idea next year to add on another chart and way for her to study vocabulary.
I downloaded these charts:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/vocabulary/pdf/prefixes_suffixes.pdf
plus the Greek and Latin Root Charts from here:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/root-words-roots-and-affixes
If you want a VERY thorough list, you can go HERE.
Another good List.
Here's the worksheet I made to use with the lists: https://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/vocab-word-parts-worksheet.pdf
I am going to use this worksheet for the words I want her to break apart and figure out.
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I used to get National Geographic before the kids were born. I'm tempted to again. I love the photography and the articles were always interesting. I took away the Lego magazine because they obsessed over it. I now realize that I have taken away nearly all the periodicals that came into the house. My children may be deprived...