Vocabulary Help

 While your child is reading we want them to comprehend and think deeply about what is read. Vocabulary is a huge part of this process! This year I will be working hard on getting students to pause on unknown words. You can help your child with this at home by talking about complex words you notice with them. This can be while you are watching a show, listening to a song on the radio, or reading. "Hey, did you hear them say 'expeditious'? What do you think that means? What clues did you use to come to that conclusion?" Together you can talk about the roots, prefixes, suffixes, and context. Modeling our thought process on how we pause on tricky words will help them think deeply about the vocabulary in their books and the world around them. We want them to be curious!

Here is a vocabulary word map you can use to help your child work through and dig deeper into the meaning of words. If your child is struggling to figure out what words mean in context or through breaking the word apart independently, this helps walk them through that process. It is a guide that will help them externally until they internalize the process of looking at all the parts of a word to determine the meaning.