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VOCABULARY VINE & SCIENCE ROOTS
Student Ideas
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Puzzles, Riddles, Challenges, etc.
Students, I'd love to hear your ideas! Send them, along with your first name and state or country, and I'll post them. Here are a few to get you started.
- Ever wonder if "Algebra" comes from the Greek root? When you consider what algia means... Hmmm.
- How many eu (good) words can you find that are not good things at all? I can think of at least four (one is euphemism); can you find more?
- Want to try to crack a really tough etymology? Try "precipitation." Give up? Look it up on etymonline.com, a really awesome etymology web site.
Adaptations
- One user wrote that she uses 4x6" index cards instead of 3x5" cards. Her children didn't like squeezing everything onto a little card, and this solved the problem.
- Brenda in MA makes Geosafari cards to review their roots. She found instructions on Donna Young's site. I asked whether a techno-challenged mom could do it, and Brenda told me, "Oh yes! I just wrote 13 roots on each side of the card. In the center of the card I listed numbers 1-26, and wrote (mixed up) the definitions. You just have to know which space matches which number. My card is very plain. No pictures, just words."
- This one is from JoAnn in NM. "My 9-yr-old daughter is drawing pictures that relate to the roots on the back of her Vocabulary Vine cards. For example, for peri she drew a submarine with a periscope. Inside the submarine (cutaway view), you see a dentist (peridontist) working on somebody's mouth. Outside the submarine is a scuba-diver with a measuring tape, figuring out the perimeter of the sub. It's cute, but it will also be a good memory aid."
- Rebecca B. says, "We do 2 roots each Friday. My daughters write the root on their cards. Then I ask them if they know any words in English that might have that Latin/Greek root in it. Sometimes they are able to guess. For instance, when we did the word "tele" (distant) I asked if they knew any English words that contained this root. They started guessing words such as television, telephone, etc. Then they had to guess what all of the words had in common. Sometimes they get the answer and sometimes I give them hints. We discuss the meaning of the root and they write it on the card. I also have them think of other English words that they may know that are related. They write the English words with their definitions."
- Julie in CA says, "I showed our son (2nd grade) Vocabulary Vine last night during story time. He understood it and we had a fun half hour. I would give him a root and options of its meaning and he would guess the correct one and tell me a word using that root. He loved this (he then quizzed me)."
Game Tiles
Several review activities are easier if you have
Game Tiles for Vocabulary Vine.
- Play Matchmaker, Match & Swipe, Neologism, or Neologism Rummy from Vocabulary Vine's "Learning Games" pages.
- Practice matching your Game Tiles to the definitions on the grid included with your order. After you've covered the sheets with the root tiles, try to remember the definitions as you remove each tile. Thank you, Suzie in TN, for contributing this idea.
- Put root tiles together to form words.
- Invent your own games. Please e-mail me your games and I'll post them here (and name you as contributor). You might want to use the blank grids I've posted
for MS Works and
for Excel.
Links
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Email Paula H