Word Wizards

    Many parents have commented to me about Word Wizard. Vocabulary is one of the strongest predictors of reading success. Word Wizard is an activity we have been doing in class to help the children build their vocabularies in a fun and meaningful way. New and interesting words that we find in our reading or content area studies are added to our vocabulary logs and word wizard board. The children try and put the words into their everyday speech. When a child uses a word wizard word, they tell the class the context they used the word in and they get to put a sticker up on our chart. The children are trying to get enough stickers to earn a popcorn party.    
   Hopefully, the children have been trying some of the word wizard words at home. I even have gotten a couple notes from parents that their child used a word wizard word. I love it! Our first word wizard words this year came from the wonderful book, Ruby the Copycat. Click on the title above to see an excellent video version of the book.     
    After reading the book and watching the video, we have been studying the words, coincidence, murmur, recite, loyal, bitter, and sensitive. We even added sensitive and bitter to our vocabulary notebooks.

     Ask your child what all six of these words mean and see if they can use examples. Try and use the words in your conversations and see if your child notices. Please be listening for word wizards! I would love to get some more notes! Thank you for your continued support!