Hello Book Bums families!
Is your family traveling this summer? Airports, road signs, and rest stops are great places to look for words. Younger kids can take the alphabet challenge, looking for letters until they find them all from A to Z. Staying local? Challenge your kids to find new words at the zoo, the children's museum, or the grocery store. Our newsletter this week is all about words. Read on for good ideas!
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Word of the Week
vocabulary (voh-cab-you-lerry) noun/person, place, or thing - the set of familiar words in a person's language
As Dr. Christy says, "Books are great vocabulary expanders!"
Literary Calendar
• June 12 is the birthday of Anne Frank.
• For her thirteenth birthday, in 1942, Anne was given her diary. Three weeks later her family went into hiding.
• Her writing from that time was published as The Diary of a Young Girl.
"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."
- Anne Frank from The Diary of a Young Girl
Tips for Readers and Writers
Tips for Teaching Readers
In the education world, we generally categorize words into three tiers.
Tier 1- basic vocabulary (book, dog, happy)
These words are commonly used in children’s everyday conversations.
Tier 2- high frequency/multiple meaning (harmony, distinguished, masterpiece)
These are more robust words that are often referred to as academic vocabulary.
Tier 3- subject related (circumference, hyperbole, etiquette)
These words are generally content specific and are low-frequency words.
Can you guess which tier has the greatest impact on your kids’ comprehension skills?
It’s tier 2. Because tier 2 words are not used in everyday conversation and they can have multiple meanings, these words can trip up beginning readers as they’re navigating more demanding texts.
Some sophisticated vocabulary can even be found in picture books written for very young children. Kids can learn the word fierce from the board book Dear Zoo. They can learn the word rumpus from Where the Wild Things Are. And they can learn the word guffaw from the book Laugh Out Loud Baby. Books are great vocabulary expanders!
To help your kids learn more and more words, so they can understand more and more of what they’re reading, simply enjoy more and more high-quality books together. Loved authors are quite good at providing expertly crafted stories featuring exquisite vocabulary, but kids need YOU to read the books with them so you can shed some light when meanings aren’t apparent.
From our Bookshelves
Donavan Allen doesn’t collect coins, comics, or trading cards like most kids. He collects words—big words, little words, soft words, and silly words. Whenever Donavan finds a new word, he writes it on a slip of paper and puts it in his word jar.
But one day, Donavan discovers that his word jar is full. He can’t put any new words in without taking some of the old words out—and he wants to keep all his words. Donavan doesn’t know what to do, until a visit to his grandma provides him with the perfect solution.
Donavan's Word Jar by Monalisa DeGross is a kids’ chapter book, but it’s a quick one—and it just might be a fun way to encourage your kids to become word noticers if not word lovers.
Tips for Families
I’ve had a long-lived love for words. To heighten my own kids’ awareness of words and to expand their vocabularies, we often featured a word of the week at the dinner table. We’d choose a word from an SAT list and practice using it throughout the week. (My kids still use some of those words and share that knowing nod that says, “See, Mom, I’ve still got it.”)
That “Word of the Week” became a part of Book Bums, and now it’s become a part of this newsletter. As a classroom teacher, I certainly highlighted off-the-beaten-path kinds of words with my students. I’d record them on a bit of card stock, post them, and encourage kids to try to use a “stretch word” in their writing.
If you’re looking for some words, here’s a good link for SAT words. https://education.yourdictionary.com/for-students-and-parents/100-most-common-sat-words.html
You can use a dry erase marker to feature words on a plate that is displayed on a plate stand.
You could also try a word jar like Donavan’s. An old pickle jar should work nicely. Have some strips of paper handy; and when you notice interesting words, coach your kids to write them on a slip of paper, add them to the jar, and then review them from time to time.
Write-on
• Summer is great time for kids (and adults!) to try journaling.
• Any notebook will work, but you can make it special by letting your child choose a color or design.
• Kids can write every day or once a week, recording their thoughts and adventures from the summer. Decide on a schedule that works for your family.
• Older kids can write longer entries while younger kids may write just a sentence or two.
• Kids of any age can add drawings to enhance their journaling.
• Save these notebooks as they will become treasured time capsules of your family's summer!
Practical Grammar
Which is correct?
a) Neither of the girls has arrived.
b) Neither of the girls have arrived.
It’s easy if you know the trick. When you say neither, it means neither one. We’d all agree that “Neither one (of the girls) has arrived.”
We would never say, “One have arrived.”
Now that you know the trick, which is correct?
a) Neither of us has a swimsuit.
b) Neither of us have a swimsuit.
a) Neither of them know the answer.
b) Neither of them knows the answer.
a) Neither of them are ready.
b) Neither of them is ready.
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