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!
- Plus Plan
Ocean-Themed Flashcards and Writing Prompts
Build vocabulary and writing skills with this ocean-themed writing activity.
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Quick Thinker Game – Worksheet
An alphabet racing game to help prompt vocabulary knowledge.
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Splat! Active Game
An active game that allows students to test and build their vocabulary knowledge.
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Multiple Meaning Match-Up Cards
16 match-up puzzles to use in the classroom when identifying homonyms.
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Word Of The Day Warm-Up PowerPoint
A 17 slide editable PowerPoint Template for a 'word of the day' warm-up.
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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 Flip Book - Year 1
A 43 page flip book for introducing new vocabulary to year 1 students.
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Soccer Cloze Worksheet
A vocabulary cloze worksheet about soccer.
- Free Plan
Free Easter Word Wall Vocabulary Display
Create a fun Easter-themed write-the-room activity and boost vocabulary skills surrounding the Easter holiday with a printable Easter word wall.
- Free Plan
Jingle Jumble - Free Christmas Find-a-Word
Use a Christmas Find-a-Word printable to build vocabulary and spelling skills in your classroom this Christmas season.
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Homophones Peg Cards
Get your students to identify the correct homophones in sentences with this set of 24 peg cards for your vocabulary lessons.
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Homophones Tarsia Puzzle
Challenge your students to identify and match pairs of homophones with this differentiated Tarsia puzzle, perfect for your primary school vocabulary lessons.
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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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Defining Homophones Matching Game
Help your students become familiar with the meanings and spellings of common homophones with this set of 36 differentiated matching cards.
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Affixes Puzzle Activity
Build words with affixes with a pack of printable word-building puzzles.
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I Have, Who Has Prefix Game
Play an exciting game to help your students identify and define words with the prefixes - pre, re, un, and dis.
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Affix Word Tree - Poster & Worksheet
Encourage vocabulary development with printable affix word tree anchor chart and worksheet
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Prefix Task Cards - Vocabulary Activity
Build your students’ skills in determining the correct prefixes to use with a set of task cards.
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Prefix Vocabulary Game - Four in a Row
Practise matching words to their common prefixes with an exciting Four in a Row Vocabulary Game.
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Suffix Saga - Vocabulary Game
Practise building and using words with common suffixes with a fun vocabulary game!
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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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Shamrock Synonyms and Antonyms Worksheet
Build vocabulary with a Shamrock Synonyms and Antonyms worksheet.
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Daily Vocabulary Dive - Synonyms Worksheet
Give your students a daily dose of vocabulary practise with a five-day Synonym Review Worksheet.
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Antonyms Crossword Puzzle
Turn your language learners into vocabulary superstars with a fun antonym crossword puzzle.
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Colour By Code Worksheet - Synonyms and Antonyms
Reveal the hidden picture and practise using synonyms and antonyms with a vocabulary colour-by-code worksheet.
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Antonyms Puzzle Activity
Print a set of 18 antonym puzzles to practise using opposite words.
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Antonym Flashcards
Boost your students vocabulary skills with a set of illustrated antonym flash cards.
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Antonym Poster
A poster showing the definition and examples of antonyms.
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Synonym Sundaes - Sorting Activity
Practise identifying synonyms with a fun ice-cream themed sorting activity.
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Antonym Domino Game
Have some wordplay fun with an Antonym Domino game!
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Synonym Dominoes
Match up similar words with this set of 28 synonym dominoes.
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Synonyms - SCOOT! Task Cards
Build vocabulary and recognition of synonyms with a fun game of SCOOT!