A strong vocabulary isn’t just about knowing “big” words. Instead, it functions as a way for students to unlock understanding and find ways to express ideas precisely. Having a wider knowledge of words helps students tackle complex texts, speak confidently, and think critically. This is why teaching vocabulary and word study is such an important upper elementary skill!

Several years ago, I created a bit of a vocab game to play with students (read more about it at the end of this post), and since then, it has evolved into this ready-to-go resource that teaches your students a huge variety of words that they can use in their everyday conversations, their writing, and apply to their reading as well. 

Vocabulary Word of the Day

I designed this super engaging and systematic way to teach your students new vocabulary, Vocabulary Word of the Day. This monthly journal and teaching slides work together to provide students with one new word per day. 

Vocabulary Word of the Day Journal

Ready to teach your students new vocabulary words each day? This 40-WEEK BUNDLE of our Vocabulary Word of the Day provides students with one new word per day. Each daily word relates to an overarching theme of the week.

I NEED ThESE!

Each daily word relates to an overarching theme of the week, which ties all words together and increases engagement. For example, week #1 is all about happiness – the words they learn include overjoyed, content, blissful, elated, and satisfied. 

Vocabulary Word of the Day includes 40 weeks of teaching content (200 words total) to use as practice each day of the school year.

Teaching Slides

Each daily lesson starts with ready-to-use teaching slides that accompany the student journal. It helps guide students in breaking apart the words into word parts (a critical component of vocabulary mastery based on the science of reading).

Here’s my favorite part of the setup: Before the word of the day is revealed to students, the slides/journal will display two sentences with blanks. Students will use context clues to guess what words might fit in those blanks. This allows students to generate dozens of words related to the actual word of the day! The teacher will log the students’ guesses in the class word tracker. Then, the slides reveal the word of the day, its part of speech, and its definition. The PowerPoint version also includes a clickable audio pronunciation of the Word of the Day.

At the end of the week, students will discuss an overarching theme that describes every word that week. Once the word of the week is revealed, students will determine its connotation.

Student Journal

While the teaching slides are displayed, students will take corresponding notes in their student journals. They’ll use context clues to guess the word and a class word tracker to write down their classmates’ guesses.

Once the word of the day is revealed, students will write down the word, determine its connotation, find its part of speech, and write a definition. Students will also draw a picture to represent the vocabulary word of the day, determine any related words, and use the word in a sentence. Finally, students will complete analogies using their knowledge of their words.

At the end of the week, students will determine the connecting theme and the type of category the theme falls into. 

At the end of each month, students will “put it all together” with a review of their words. Teachers can use this as an assessment, homework, or anything else!

Vocabulary Card Game

Just like using pictures to teach, I am a big fan of making learning as concrete as possible for our students. This is the original game I played with students before creating the journal. I use vocabulary picture cards for this activity. While the exact cards I use aren’t available anymore, these are similar. You could also have students create their own cards from a word bank, which would also allow them to practice using dictionaries and thesauruses. 

To play, each student receives a card with a secret vocabulary word/illustration. The back of the card has a definition of their secret word and its most common synonyms. The rest of the class tries to guess the secret word while I make a list of their guesses on the board. You’ll end up with a list of mystery words and student-generated synonyms on your board.

You can visit this Instagram highlight to see the activity in action!

More Word Study

As texts become more complex, introducing new vocabulary skills is crucial to student success. In addition to exposing students to new vocabulary, prefix/suffix/root word practice is also important. Visit this post to see my complete guide to teaching prefixes and suffixes.

Even though upper elementary students have been introduced to homophones in earlier grades, many students still struggle to correctly use and understand commonly confused words. This post has tips to help your students become commonly confused word experts, which is another great way to expand their vocabulary!