Can You Find That Word?

Our underwater theme has tied in nicely with learning about the CSS Hunley, a Civil War submarine.  Today we used words from our readings about the Hunley to practice dictionary skills.

I used an idea Leanne shared in her blog about the students jotting down words they did not know as they read silently.  We read a history about the Hunley yesterday while working on comprehension skills.  Today we took the words students had written down and practiced our dictionary skills by looking up the definitions of these words. (Thanks Leanne!)

I went looking on line to find some games to use in the lesson plan and found a great site that shared fun ways to practice dictionary skills: http://www.squidoo.com/Dictionary-Skills#module120015721.   It was a great resource. 

One game on this site is called Unscrambling Stories:  Arranging Words in Alphabetical Order. This game covers the necessary dictionary skill of putting words in alphabetical order. Students are given a list of words and told to put them in alphabetical order.  If they do it correctly, the words make a fun sentence:

*I                            * one                    *zebras                *Allen                   *here                                             

*or                         *come                  *need                   *two

Allen, come here.  I need one or two zebras.

This game was a little hard for some students who are still struggling with this skill.  I gave  students an alphabet chart to help them with this project.  This game was fun.  Students who finished early created new sentences for us to use!

After discussing guide words in a dictionary and how to use them, we played another game. With students working in pairs we identified guide words for given words. This was an imitation of an online game called Rags to Riches http://www.quia.com/rr/45806.html students earned money for correct responses.

Now we were ready for our dictionaries.  Working in pairs students were given a dictionary and list of words.  Students had to find the words in the dictionary and write down their guide words.

We will tie this skill into our book reports.  As students read their chapter book, they will complete at least one dictionary sheet for a word they do not know the meaning of.  Hopefully this skill will help them as they return to their classrooms in the fall.

This lesson was too long. It would  be better to break it up into two or three lessons.