Vocabulary Teaching Resources
Explore vocabulary games, printable worksheets, cloze reading activities, task cards and more primary school teaching resources designed to help you help your students build their vocabulary skills!
This extensive collection of teaching resources has been created by teachers for teachers like you. Aligned to the Australian curriculum, the collection includes word-of-the-week activities, teaching presentations and more to save primary teachers time on lesson planning.
Created by expert teachers, each resource in this English collection has been carefully reviewed and curated by our team. That means it's ready to use in the classroom! You'll even find editable resources, plus differentiated options.
New to teaching this part of the English curriculum, or just looking for fresh ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teaching team, including some vocabulary teaching techniques and tips for teaching this important part of the curriculum to your primary students.
What Is Vocabulary?
It may seem obvious, but let's start at the beginning.
In a primary school context, vocabulary can be defined as the set of words that a student is expected to know and understand. It includes not just the words themselves but also their meanings, spellings and how to use them in different contexts.
Teaching vocabulary at this level is focused on the development of a strong foundation of language skills, which will serve our students well as they continue to learn and communicate throughout their lives.
Vocabulary Teaching Techniques to Try in Your Classroom
Teaching vocabulary at the primary school level involves a host of different techniques to help students learn new words. Some of those include:
- Providing definitions and examples of words
- Using visual aids to help students understand new words
- Encouraging students to use new words in their writing
- Teaching students to use context clues to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words
- Teaching students strategies to decode new words they encounter, including the introduction of common prefixes, suffixes and root words
Students need both explicit and implicit vocabulary instruction in primary school to learn new words as they will build a strong foundation of words, not just by picking them up while reading and listening to others, but also through direct instruction.
Teaching Vocabulary in Primary School
Teaching vocabulary for the first time? Here are some topics you can expect to cover, depending on your year level!
- Basic high-frequency words
- Vocabulary related to specific subjects
- Words with multiple meanings (and how to use them in context)
- Synonyms and antonyms
- Prefixes and suffixes
- Root words
- Words with irregular spellings and pronunciation
Vocabulary Teaching Ideas
Looking for some ideas to get your students excited about vocabulary? In addition to the teacher-created resources in this collection, here are a few favourite ideas from our teacher team!
Erase a Word Pronunciation Challenge
In this pronunciation game, you can select word lists related to current units or use a high frequency word list to improve student vocabulary.
Supplies
- 3 whiteboard erasers
- Vocabulary list(s)
How to Play
- Break students into three teams, and have them stand in lines in front of your whiteboard.
- Write three lists of words onto the board — one list in front of each team.
- On the teacher's signal, the first person from each team goes up to the board and reads aloud one of the words on the list.
- If they get the word correct, they erase the word and go to the back of their team's line.
- The first team to erase all of the words on their list is the winner.
A-Z Vocabulary Relay Race
This is a fun, physical vocabulary game that is great to play outdoors or in a large multi-purpose area. Students play in teams, racing to complete a list of words (one for every letter of the alphabet) around a familiar topic or theme.
Supplies
- pens or pencils
- A4 paper
- tape
How to Play
- Divide students into mixed-ability teams of 4 to 5 students.
- Students stand in a line on one side of the space. On the other side of the space, place a pen or pencil and tape to the ground a sheet of paper with the letters A-Z listed down the side.
- Choose a topic that the students are familiar with. This will be the theme for all the words the students write on their A-Z list. Alternatively, you can choose a unit you're currently studying as your topic.
- The race begins with the leader running to the paper and writing a word beginning with the letter A that is related to the theme. Once they've written the word — spelled correctly — they run back to their team.
- The next team member runs up to the paper and writes a word beginning with B, before running back to their team so a teammate can go up to write a word starting with C, and so on.
- If a student cannot come up with a word, they can call a friend to help. If they still can't come up with a word, they can call the teacher for help.
- Teams continue this word relay until they have written a word for every letter. The first team to complete their word list (and have it verified by the teacher!) are the winners.
Snake Words
In this game, students work in teams (similar to the A-Z relay detailed above) to create a word snake on the board. Students have a limited time (e.g. 10 seconds) to write their word or their team risks being eliminated.
Supplies
- 4 -5 different coloured whiteboard markers or chalk
- a timer or stopwatch
How to Play
- Split students into 4 to 5 mixed-ability teams of equal numbers.
- Have each team select a leader and send them to the classroom whiteboard.
- Team leaders should take a coloured marker and stand in a line.
- The teacher begins the game by writing a letter of the alphabet on the board, and starting the timer.
- The first team leader writes a word beginning with that letter and must complete the word within the time limit. For example, if the teacher wrote the letter G, they might write galaxy. Then they hand their marker to the next person in their team.
- The second team leader uses the last letter of the previous word as the first letter of the next word, also within the time limit. Using the example word above, the next student may write 'yoghurt.' Then they hand their marker to the next person from their team. Note: Students write the words without spaces, in essence creating a word snake. E.g. galaxyoghurt
- If a student cannot come up with a word within the time limit, they can pass it to the next team member, but you should set a limit to the number of passes each team can have. After this, the team is eliminated.
- The last team standing is the winner!
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Greek and Latin Roots – Word Tree Anchor Charts
Encourage vocabulary development with 24 Greek and Latin root anchor charts.
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Greek and Latin Roots – Vocabulary Notebook
Enhance vocabulary containing Greek and Latin roots with a Google Slides Interactive vocabulary notebook. Also available in print format.
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Synonyms Anchor Chart Pack
Print a pack of colourful synonym anchor charts to boost vocabulary in the classroom!
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Synonym Worksheets
Practise identifying and using synonyms with a set of four synonym worksheets for students in Year 4.
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Year 2 Synonym Worksheets
Practise identifying and using synonyms with a set of four synonym worksheets for Year 2 students.
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Morphology Bingo
Examine word parts and identify their morphological meanings in this engaging bingo game.
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Morpheme Match-Up Game
Consolidate your morphology lessons by ensuring students understand word parts terminology and the meanings of different word parts.
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Wheely Wonderful Words – Overused Adjectives
Banish overused adjectives with a handy adjective-synonym word wheel!
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Vivid Verbs Poster Pack
Teach your students to omit boring, overused verbs from their writing with a classroom set of vivid verb posters.
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Word Origins Inquiry Project
Download this word origins project where students will investigate a Greek or Latin root word and use their research to create an engaging museum-style exhibit.
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What Is Etymology? Teaching Slides
Explore word origins with this teaching presentation that helps students unlock the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary by learning how Greek and Latin roots shape thousands of words in English.
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Number and Measurement Prefixes Worksheet Pack
Help your students master number and measurement prefixes with this comprehensive worksheet pack, which uses a collection of engaging activities to show how prefixes change word meaning.
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Shades of Meaning in Adverbs Worksheet Pack
Use this adverbs worksheet pack to help students explore the subtle shades of meaning in words and confidently choose precise language in their writing.
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Affixes Word Family Fill in the Blanks Worksheets
Use these Affixes Fill-in-the-Blank Worksheets to help students strengthen their vocabulary and grammar skills.
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Find the Base Word - Highlight and Read Sheets
Strengthen your students’ vocabulary with this Find the Base Word Worksheet Set.
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Fast Finisher Vocabulary Task Cards - Upper Years
Boost student vocabulary skills with rigorous, engaging Vocabulary Task Cards for Fast Finishers.
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Finding Word Meaning In Text - Context Clues Activity Sheet
Use context clues to determine word meaning in text with a printable Context Clues Activity Sheet.
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Word of the Week PowerPoint – Year 4 Vocabulary Words
A 40 slide PowerPoint template for introducing new vocabulary to Year 4 students.
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Core Vocabulary Board - Classroom Display
Ignite your students' interest with fun vocabulary activities that make learning new words interactive through our Core Vocabulary Board Display for a Word of the Day or Week routine!
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Shades of Meaning in Verbs Worksheet Pack
Teach your students about the shades of meaning in verbs through engaging worksheets that help students distinguish subtle differences between similar words.
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Classroom Colour Charts
Promote colour recognition in your preschool classroom with printable colour word charts with images.
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Double Consonant Word Building Cards
Practise spelling and building words that need double consonants when adding suffixes with a word-building activity.
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Find The Imposter! – Plural Suffixes Game
Teach your students apply suffixes to make plural nouns with this engaging interactive activity.
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Make It Plural Interactive Activity
Help children grasp the tricky concept of pluralising nouns with an interactive Google Slides activity.
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Word Building Bricks - Prefixes, Suffixes and Roots
Build, read and write multi-syllable words using prefixes, suffixes and base words with a fun word-building literacy activity.
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Snag-a-Suffix Claw Machine Interactive Review Game
Review knowledge of suffixes with an exciting interactive claw machine game!
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Prefixes Mini Anchor Charts
Give your students a visual reminder of the meanings of 36 different prefixes with a printable set of miniature prefix anchor charts.
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Building Words with Prefixes Sorting Activity
Build words by matching the root word to prefixes and recording the new terms on the answer sheet.
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Synonyms and Antonyms Practice Worksheets
Boost vocabulary skills with daily review worksheets on synonyms and antonyms.
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Frayer Model Template
Work on your students' vocabulary development with this Frayer Model template.
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Everyday Opposites - Antonym Game
Have some wordplay fun with an Everyday Opposites domino game!
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Antonym Worksheets
Practise identifying and using antonyms with a set of worksheets for students in Year 4.