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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Pick the Synonym - Self-Checking Interactive Activity
Build some ‘llama-zing’ vocabulary skills using a fun llama-themed self-checking activity with synonyms!
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My Word of the Day Mat
A fun worksheet to use in the classroom when building vocabulary.
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Antonyms Task Cards
Build vocabulary and recognition of antonyms with a set of 24 task cards.
- Free Plan
Strong Verbs Word Wall
Print a set of strong verbs word wall cards to help your students boost their writing skills!
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Synonyms and Antonyms - Printable Puzzles
Turn your language learners into vocabulary superstars with a fun synonym and antonym puzzle activity.
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Roots Graphic Organiser Template
Use this graphic organiser to explore roots and their origins.
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Compound Words – Match-Up Activity
Build your students knowledge of compound words with this hands-on matching activity.
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Suffix -Able - Grammar Worksheet
Transform your students’ vocabulary skills with our skill-building English worksheets, featuring the powerful “-able” suffix
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Word Of The Day Worksheet (basic)
A word of the day worksheet with a variety of tasks to give context and meaning to a word.
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Fast Finisher Vocabulary Task Cards - Upper Grades
A set of 30 vocabulary task cards.
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Word of the Week PowerPoint - Year 4
A 40 slide PowerPoint Template for introducing new vocabulary to year 4 students.
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Word of the Week PowerPoint - Year 2
A 40 slide PowerPoint Template for introducing new vocabulary to year 2 students.
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Prefixes and Suffixes - Colour By Code Worksheets
Practise identifying words with affixes with a fun colour-by-code worksheet.
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Suffix Stars - Interactive Suffix Review
Practice reading and spelling plural nouns with an engaging Google Slides digital learning activity.
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Colour By Suffix Worksheet
Reveal the hidden picture and practise using the inflectional endings -s, -es, -ies, and -ves with a colour-by-code worksheet.
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Sort the Suffixes - Worksheets
Practise using the suffixes -s, -es, -ies and -ves with a pack of printable add-a-suffix worksheets.
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Mini Anchor Charts - Prefixes
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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Four in a Row Vocabulary Game - Suffixes
Practise matching words to their common suffixes and build vocabulary with a suffix vocabulary game.
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Synonym Worksheets - Year 2
Practise identifying and using synonyms with a set of four synonym worksheets for early years students.
- Free Plan
Using Context Clues – Worksheet
A worksheet to practise using context clues when reading.
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Homophones Crossword Puzzle
Challenge your students to complete this vocabulary crossword puzzle by completing the sentences with the correct homophone.
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Fast Finisher Vocabulary Task Cards - Lower Grades
A set of 16 vocabulary task cards.
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Ghost Train Cloze Worksheet
A narrative vocabulary cloze worksheet.
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Homophones in the Dictionary Worksheets
Help your students become familiar with the meanings and spellings of common homophones with this differentiated dictionary skills worksheet.
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Google Slides Interactive - Prefixes Activity
Practise adding prefixes to words by identifying, defining, and matching them in context.
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Which Pair Is It? Synonyms and Antonyms Interactive Activity
Help your students learn new synonyms and antonyms with an interactive matching activity.
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Which Suffix is it? - Task Cards
Practise using suffixes in sentences with a set of printable suffix task cards.
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Greek and Latin Root Words - Illustrated Word Wall
Use word wall displays to build student vocabulary with daily exposure to Greek and Latin root words.
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Instructional PowerPoint - Prefixes
Teach your students to correctly identify, define, and spell words with common prefixes with an interactive teaching presentation.
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Antonym or Synonym? Interactive Resource
Boost vocabulary skills using a fun emoji-themed self-checking activity with synonyms and antonyms!
- Plus Plan
Synonyms - Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle
Boost vocabulary skills with a fun synonym crossword puzzle.
- Free Plan
Synonyms and Antonyms Worksheet - Colour by Code
Explore pairs of synonyms and antonyms with this colour-code worksheet.