Sunday, September 29, 2013

Dictionary Skills

This year I am trying to cover a different information literacy skill each month for second through fifth grade.   September's Media lessons focused on dictionary skills.


There are tons of lesson ideas for teaching dictionary skills, but I wanted something fun and new so I did some searching and found this cute idea for younger grades.  It would be a bit time consuming for my second and third grade classes to cut out all of the pieces, so I created a one page sheet and called it a Dictionary Dude.

I made two different versions, one for second grade that didn't have as much on it and one for third grade that was a little more involved.


Both grade levels seemed to enjoy it. I also made a third version in case I ever want to use it with fourth and fifth grade.  It might be a bit juvenile for them, but I might could use it with the gifted second and third graders.


With fourth and fifth grades, I knew I would have to come up with something more fun than just a worksheet, so after talking with my husband who is a former fifth grade teacher, I decided to do a "Dictionary Relay."

I broke classes up into 5 teams and each team had to answer 10 questions about a word from the dictionary. They all had the same word, but I didn't tell the teams that.


I had the teams all line up at one end of the table and the question/answer sheet and dictionary was at the other end of the table.  When I said "GO!"  the first team member walked to the end of the table where the dictionary and question/answer sheet was and answered the first question. When finished, they walked back to the other end of the table and tagged the next person to answer the next question.


I gave the teams 10 minutes max to answer all the questions and when they were finished, they had to hand me their completed answer sheet.  The first team to hand in their sheet with ALL the correct answers, won a prize. If they had any incorrect answers, they could work as a team to correct them, but they would receive a 30 second time penalty when they turned in their answer sheet.  If any other team turned in their answer sheet before that time penalty was up and had all the correct answers, they would win.  I also let teams know there would be a 30 second time penalty if they got loud.  We were in the library after all.  It was amazingly quiet after that, but they were still having so much fun...looking up information in the dictionary!  One student even exclaimed "You're the best Media Specialist ever!"  That really made my day.  =)


I am going to try this relay with third grade next week since fourth and fifth grade enjoyed it so much, but I will only give them 5 questions since they are still learning to be proficient with a dictionary.



If you'd like a copy of the "Dictionary Dude" or "Dictionary Relay" you can get them HERE or by clicking on the picture above.

Do you have any fun lessons about dictionary skills?


20 comments:

  1. Oh my...I was just putting together my plans for next week, and this is perfect! thank you!!!!

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  2. I love the dictionary dudes! BRILLIANT!

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    1. Glad you like them. My kiddos got a kick out of them, too. =)

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  3. I like this idea, a lot. I wish I'd found it a few weeks ago, before I started my lessons on the dictionary. I did a series of games, but this is so much better. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. So glad you the idea. Maybe you can use it as a review lesson. =)

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  4. THANK YOU So MUCH!! I was looking for something like this for next week! Can't wait to use it!!

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  5. Dictionary Relay...Simply AWESOME I will try it next week
    with my 5th grade class.

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  6. We did the first Dictionary Dude page today! It was totally terrific! The kids LOVED doing that and the Dictionary Relay! They are a very competitive class, so this worked well! Thanks so much! Great ideas.

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    1. So glad your kiddos enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know. =)

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  7. Love these activities and can't wait to use them! You're awesome!

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  8. Thanks for sharing your great dictionary activity. I am excited to share this with my students.

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  9. AWESOME! Love this activity so much!

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  10. Wow, I love this so much! Thank you thank you thank you!

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  11. I was searching for some fun things to do with dictionary skills. Thanks for your resources!!!!

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  12. Thank you! I teach ESL students who at about a grade 3 level, so this will be perfect for them. :D

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  13. These activities are great! Thanks so much for sharing them. Going to do Dictionary Dudes with 3rd graders today!

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  14. Thank you for providing these materials! I didn't use them as intended but they really helped. I took your word lists, cut the into groups of five words and then had students look up the words and write down the page number. If they couldn't find the word, we would all stop to see if we could find it - it was very helpful for my second graders who are still getting used to alphabetizing, especially to the third letter. Thank you!

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  15. I use one of the My First Dictionaries with 2d grade (not sure of the edition). After the first week of "ordinary" words, I ask them if they are ready for a "3d grade word, a 4th grade word, etc." Then, I say, "How about a college-level word?" Most are shouting "yes, yes,' (a few are suspicious). Our dictionary has the word "pachycephalosaurus." They are stunned as I write it on the board. After they find the definition, I casually wander over to the dinosaur books and what is there but a large egg (plaster Easter egg with hole in bottom). I pull out a small dinosaur toy (yes it is actually a pachycephalosaurus, not just any dinosaur). And lo and behold, we have a book on this species in our library! They go crazy!

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    1. I love it! What a great way to get your kiddos excited about dictionaries. Thanks for sharing. =)

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