S.O.L. #21/31
WooHoo!!! I saw someone mention the book The Boy Who Loved Words somewhere recently. The minute I heard the title I knew I needed to grab the book and check it out for myself.
I
immediately checked our school library but nope, didn’t have it. So I
emailed our Primary (k-2) Elementary Librarian. She had it and sent it
home with my son last night. I voraciously (That is a word from the book) read it as soon as I got home and it was perfect!!!
All year long, my students have been gathering words to “expand our vocabulary”.
We
study the vocabulary words that our reading series introduces each
week. My students squeal with glee (ok the boys don’t actually squeal)
when they find one of our vocabulary words in their own personal
reading books. For the first semester, we gathered these vocabulary
words on a huge “I SPY my vocabulary words” poster. They wrote the
vocabulary word, the title of the book they found it in and then sign
their name. The kids filled this poster up quickly and loved it!
Now
for the second semester, I switched it up on them. We are still word
collectors but now we are gathering interesting, intriguing, new,
important words in our own independent reading. The can share and write
their words on our new “Word Collector” poster. They keep a personal
word collector page in their notebooks as well. So you can imagine my
excitement when I discovered a there was a book about a boy who
collected words. Along with being a really cute story, it contained many
new, tantalising (yeah
that’s another one) words!!! I hope it inspires my students to
continue being word collectors and to have a purpose for their words. I
want them to be awakened to words, notice vocabulary. Eventually, I
hope to see them weaving these new words they’ve discovered into their
writing as well. The Boy Who Loved Words is a gem I know I will be ordering it for my classroom library to share with my 4th graders every year!!!
Note: I grabbed the word “mellifluously”
from the book . I swirled it around my head practicing its
pronunciation all day. Then would you believe while we were reading a
fable from our reading series-------the word mellifluously was used?!!!! Weeeeee!!! (That is ME squealing!!)
Building vocabulary is so important! It sound like your doing a great job encouraging your students' word-awareness. Have you read Donovan's Word Jar? It's a short chapter book about a boy who collects words. Thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteCatherine
Kudos for your vocabulary teaching! Might have to "steal" your I Spy Vocabulary sign idea...
ReplyDeleteOf course! :)
DeleteI love this!!! I'm a fellow word nerd :). I have this book and love your idea about making kids word collectors too. If you go to my blog's quote page, I think I have a few quotes about collecting words. I also have a post called 'Incarnadine Seas' which is in response to Georgia Heard's affair with words. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteb
www.livewriteteach.blogspot.com
I follow your blog now and visited your quotes page--I borrowed some great writing quotes. thanks :)
DeleteI want this book! It sounds fabulous, especially for this word nerd who used to read the dictionary for entertainment and can still get lost on dictionary.com. I'm adding it to my wish list now!
ReplyDeleteI need this book! We are really working on building kids' vocabulary and I think this would be something people would love!
ReplyDeleteI love this book ! Some other books you might want to check out is
ReplyDeleteMiss Alaineus by Debra Frasier
Donovan's Word Jar by Monalisa DeGross
Max's Words by Kate Banks
After reading this, I went to the library and got the book! What a cute read! I've been a voracious work collector over the years and I love your idea for inspiring your students! They will appreciate it and remember you forever!
ReplyDelete