I always try to make vocabulary activities really fun for my students, because I want them to remember the words. When they have fun, it’s almost like I “trick” them into learning and I LOVE it! My students get so excited when they walk in the room from P.E. (or computer) and they see a Word Hunt set up in the classroom. And… I love the Word Hunt because the students are reading and writing the vocabulary words.
To Play: I hide the vocabulary words in funny places all over the classroom (I even put one on the ceiling and they thought that was so clever). I make sure to put them on the same color of paper (there are so many words all over the room, it sets them apart). Once the music starts, they can begin playing and find the words. I make sure they know that this is an individual game and not a group activity. If they talk then they have to take a 30 second time out–which isn’t good because they all want to find the words as fast as they can. I only give the first 6 finishers a sticker and then I stop the Word Hunt (it goes too long if you let everyone find the words and some kids want to give up after a long time). Anyways, it is really neat to see them all searching for the words with the fun music playing in the background!
This week, our vocabulary words focused on the long /a/ vowel pairs “ai” and “ay”. This means, my students not only had to search for the words, but they had to sort them the right way, too.
Click the worksheet below to download a basic vocabulary Word Hunt worksheet:
