Fun Vocabulary Activities: Helping Your Students Learn New Words

I wanted to share 10 Fun Vocabulary Activities you can use in your classroom. These activities work with a set of vocabulary cards, a vocabulary board, or a storyboard.

Teaching new content can be challenging due to the extensive vocabulary that accompanies it. Try adding one of these activities each day to help your students learn new words without getting bored.

You can download a pdf of all the activities with supplies and directions at the bottom of the post.

If you want to download FREE schedule cards to accompany these fun vocabulary activities, read this blog post, Adding Structure to Your Small Group Lesson with Schedules.

Using a Vocabulary or Storyboard

This video will provide insight into a storyboard, how to use it, and how effective it can be in increasing participation and engagement.

NOTE: For many of these activities, you will want to make a second copy of your vocabulary board since you will be holding the images up in front of the students.

1. I Spy Game

What you need:

• One copy of the board for each student
• One teacher copy you have cut apart (enlarging it also helps but is not necessary)
• Counters/markers or a way for students to mark their board

How to play:

• Hold one of the pictures from the board so only you can see it.
• Describe it with as much detail as you can
• Ask students to put their marker/counter on the picture they think you are holding
• Turn it around and ask students to raise their hand if they got it correct

2. Scavenger Hunt

What you need:

• One copy of the board for each student
• One teacher copy you have cut apart (enlarging it also helps but is not necessary)
• Sticky notes

How to play:

• Paste the symbols around the room
• Students walk around with their vocabulary board, looking for matching symbols
• Place a sticky note on their board covering the symbols as they find them

3. Speed Matching

What you need:

• Two copies of the vocabulary board cut apart

How to play:

• place all the cards in the middle of the table
• hold up a card, and the students race to find it in the pile in the middle of the table
• NOTE:  for students with physical challenges, allow them to find the symbol on their board or communication device

4. Puzzles

What you need:

• One copy of the vocabulary board with each symbol cut in half

How to play:

• Give each student a pile of pieces
• Have them reassemble the pieces into the correct symbols
• They may have to ask each other if someone else has the second half of their piece.  Great for increasing communication and sharing.

5. Go Fish

What you need:

• 3-4 copies of the vocabulary board (depending on if you want them to find sets of 3 or 4 matching symbols)

How to play

• Give each student 4-5 symbols that they hold so no one else can see them
• Play traditional Go Fish game

6. Sorting Games

What you need:

• One copy of the vocabulary board for each student
• Different colored counters or sticky notes

How to play:

• Find a common characteristic of many of the symbols on the board, for example:
  • people
  • animals
  • places
  • actions
  • food
• Have students place one color counter on all those that share that characteristic
• Place the other color on all those that do NOT share that characteristic (or leave them uncovered)
• You can give students some clues, like you should be able to cover 6 symbols.

7. Ordinals

What you need:

• A copy of the vocabulary board for each student
• Counters/markers or sticky notes

How to play:

• This is a great way to practice some math while doing an unrelated lesson
• Have students place the counter on the first, second, third, etc symbol in row 1
• You may need to differentiate or modify the board to help students understand which row they are looking at
  • Label the rows to the left 1-5
  • Cover the rows you are not using so there is only one row visible

8. Coding (for your higher-level students)

What you need:

• A copy of the vocabulary board for each student marked with labels up, down, right, and left
  • You can add these temporarily with sticky notes so you do not have to print all new boards.
  • Use U, D, R, L, or arrows for non-readers.
• Some counter/marker or pawn they can move from a board game
• Optional:  7 large cards with numbers 1-3 and up, down, right, left

How to play:

• Have every student put their marker or pawn on the same starting square
• Have students show you, by pointing, which way is up, down, left, and right
  • Or hold up your large card and have them find the matching direction on their board
• Give simple directions like:
  • Move 2 right
  • Move 1 down
  • Move 1 right
  • Move 1 down
• Where do you end up?
• For more advanced students, write the directions on an index card and see if they all end up in the same place.

9. Bean Bag Toss (a student favorite!)

What you need:

• A copy of the vocabulary board for each student
• A copy of the vocabulary board cut apart
• Small paper plates (you can also use pieces of construction paper)
• Bean bags

How to play:

• Glue the cut-apart symbols to the paper plates (one on each plate)
• Arrange them around the room
• Students toss the bean bag, trying to get it to land on a paper plate
• Students retrieve the paper plate
• Find the matching symbol on their board, or name the symbol

10. BINGO Bean Bag Toss

What you need:

• A copy of the vocabulary board for each student
• 1-2 copies of the vocabulary board cut apart
• Small paper plates (you can also use pieces of construction paper)
• Bean bags
• Bean bags
• Counters or markers

How to play:

• This is set up just like the bean bag toss above.
• Explain to the students that they will be trying to collect enough symbols to complete a row down or across.
• Students then need to be able to visually find the symbol they are looking for in their row and toss the bean bag so it hopefully lands on it.

To download a reference guide for these 10 Fun Vocabulary Activities:

For even more ideas on teaching new vocabulary, check out the post How to Teach New Vocabulary in a Special Education Classroom