Mad Dictionary Skills ;)

Okay…so my kids don’t have them YET, but they have been introduced to this wonderful little resource.  Resource is a BIG word in my class.  My kids know that if they’re having trouble with something, they need to use a RESOURCE for help.  Lately, they’ve been really curious about words and their meanings.  I LOVE that!!  When they’re reading to self, I’ll often have kids who bring their books to me and say, “what does that mean?!?!” as they point inquisitively to the word in question.  While I really try to encourage them to use their context clues, sometimes word meaning can be a little tricky to figure out!  SO…it was time to teach my kids how to USE the dictionary because, as we all know, it’s an invaluable RESOURCE!! 

We did a little SmartBoard lesson on guide words & definitions.  I didn’t want to get TOO in depth…just wanted to start them off with the basics!  Of course, my firsties are pretty well versed in ABC order, so we did a few little ABC order activities and transitioned right into using guide words to find different words.  After we did this a few times, I split the kids into groups of 2-3 & gave each little group a dictionary.  I also handed each group a word card.  Their objective was to find the word {using the guide words as a reference} and then read the definition.  Once they located all the info, they had to write down the word…guide words…page number…and definition. {I definitely differentiated this activity!!  Some of my babies were given very “easy cheesy” words while some of my GT’s were given “big” words :)}

I had the kids write all the info on kite bows and illustrate the word/definition on a kite.  They had SO much fun with this activity!! 

I now have kids asking if they can “read” the dictionary during D.E.A.R Time or Read to Self.  HA!!  They’re even BEGGING me to give them words to find.  I can feel a new little center comin’ on quick!!!  I love it when they get excited about learning!!