Vocabulary Teaching Resources
Build your students' vocabulary skills with printable worksheets, cloze reading activities, task cards and more elementary school teaching resources designed to help extend and improve your students' vocabularies.
This extensive collection of teaching resources has been created by teachers for teachers like you. The curriculum-aligned collection includes word-of-the-week activities, teaching presentations and more to save elementary teachers time on lesson planning.
Created by expert teachers, each resource in this ELA 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 ELA curriculum, or just looking for fresh ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teaching team!
What Is Vocabulary?
It may seem obvious, but let's start at the beginning.
In an elementary 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 focuses on developing a strong foundation of language skills, which will serve our students well as they continue to learn and communicate.
Vocabulary Teaching Techniques
Teaching vocabulary at the primary school level involves various 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 Elementary School
Teaching vocabulary for the first time? Here are some topics you can expect to cover, depending on your grade 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 and Activities
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 favorite 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 it and go to the back of their team's line.
- The winner is the first team to erase all the words on their list.
A-Z Vocabulary Relay Race
This is a fun, physical vocabulary game that is great to play outside 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
- 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 colored 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 colored 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 on their team.
- The second team leader uses the previous word's last letter as the next word's first letter, also within the time limit. Using the example word above, the next student may write 'yogurt.' 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. galaxyogurt
- 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!
- Free Plan
Interesting Idioms Worksheet
A worksheet using common idioms.
- Free Plan
Which Homophone? Worksheets
Download this differentiated homophones worksheet to help your students become more familiar with this tricky vocabulary!
- Plus Plan
Word Villain - Prefix and Suffix Worksheets
Practice building words with suffixes and prefixes with a pair of printable vocabulary worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Suffix Stories - Morphology Passages
Practice reading, defining, and using words suffixes with a pack of suffix-focused reading passage worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Suffix Worksheet: -less
Build vocabulary skills with a suffix worksheet featuring the suffix -less.
- Free Plan
Dictionary Guide Words Cut and Paste
Cut and paste to work out what guide words go with each of these words found in the dictionary.
- Plus Plan
Suffix Bingo - Vocabulary Game
Match words with suffixes to their meaning in this BINGO game.
- Free Plan
Suffix Mini Anchor Charts
Give your students a visual reminder of the meanings of 28 suffixes with a printable set of miniature anchor charts.
- Free Plan
Synonym and Antonym Crossword Puzzle
Review vocabulary skills and boost your students’ knowledge of synonyms and antonyms with a crossword puzzle worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Headbands - Easter Games for Kids
Give your students an Easter brain break with a printable Easter Game of headbands.
- Plus Plan
Synonyms and Antonyms - Worksheet Pack
Practice identifying and using synonyms and antonyms with five fun synonym and antonym worksheets.
- Free Plan
Super Synonyms List
Boost your students’ vocabularies with a synonyms list to reference in their daily writing lessons.
- Free Plan
Word Power Vocabulary Worksheet
A comic book themed worksheet to use in the classroom when building vocabulary.
- Plus Plan
Earth Day Vocabulary and Writing Pack
Help your young students learn and write about Earth Day with an illustrated word wall and writing prompts.
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Food Chains & Food Webs – Vocabulary Booklet
Reinforce science vocabulary by creating a booklet to reference when studying food chains and food webs.
- Plus Plan
Read and Write Compound Words Worksheet
Read and write compound words with a set of fill-in and cut and paste worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Lewis and Clark Close Read Comprehension Pack
Enhance your students' comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills with a close reading passage and activity pack about the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
- Plus Plan
Interactive Suffix Activity-Google Slides
Practice adding suffixes to words by identifying, defining, and matching them in context.
- Plus Plan
Compound Word Matching Game
Combine words to make compound words with a fun, printable Compound word game.
- Plus Plan
Introduction to Homophones Teaching Slides
Teach your students how to use homophones correctly in their writing with this comprehensive set of teaching slides.
- Free Plan
Prefix Worksheet: Un- and Dis-
Build vocabulary skills with a prefix worksheet featuring the prefixes Un- and Dis-.
- Plus Plan
Multiple Meanings Vocabulary Worksheet
A worksheet to use in the classroom when identifying multiple-meaning words.
- Plus Plan
Compound Words - Worksheet Pack
Practice using compound words in sentences with. a pair of printable compound word worksheets for older students.
- Plus Plan
Compound Words with Pictures - Combining Word Cards
Combine words to make compound words and boost vocabulary skills with a printable combining words word wall.
- Plus Plan
Name That Homophone! Interactive Activity
Get students to recognize the correct spelling of common homophones with this engaging digital resource perfect for vocabulary lessons.
- Plus Plan
Homophones Word Searches
Immerse your students in common homophones with this differentiated set of homophones word searches for your vocabulary lessons.
- Plus Plan
Hunting for Homophones – SCOOT! Task Cards
Get your students to identify the correct homophones in sentences with this set of 36 task cards for your vocabulary lessons.
- Plus Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
Prefix Crossword Puzzle
Review vocabulary skills and boost your students’ knowledge of prefixes with a printable crossword puzzle for kids
- Plus Plan
Which Homophone? Interactive Game
Add some excitement to your vocabulary lessons with an interactive game exploring homophones and their definitions.
- Plus Plan
Homophones Crossword Puzzle
Challenge your students to complete this vocabulary crossword puzzle by completing the sentences with the correct homophone.
- Plus Plan
Rainbow Affixes - Prefix and Suffix Game
Define words with prefixes and suffixes with a self-checking interactive game!
- Vocabulary Worksheets
- Vocabulary Games
- Vocabulary Posters
- Vocabulary Templates
- Vocabulary Word Walls
- Vocabulary for Pre-K
- Vocabulary for Kindergarten
- Vocabulary for 1st Grade
- Vocabulary for 2nd Grade
- Vocabulary for 3rd Grade
- Vocabulary for 4th Grade
- Vocabulary for 5th Grade
- Vocabulary for 6th Grade
- Vocabulary for 7th Grade