Vocabulary Game

What You Need:

• A variety of items that can be described by your child. This activity travels well, so take it on the road, to the park, or to the store.

What You Do:

1. Ask your child to describe something he sees. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as he can see it clearly and describe it easily.
2. Pick out a word from your child’s description and offer synonyms for it. For example, your child describes a tree as big. That big tree might also be described as enormous, large, huge, immense, gigantic or gargantuan. Point out that the words you are using all mean big.
3. Have your child repeat the words you provide. Some of them might seem funny to him!
4. Ask your first grader if he can think of any other words that mean big.
5. Pick another object and repeat the process.
6. The game can be as short or as long as you like, depending on the time you have and your child’s attention span.
7. When you first begin playing the Vocabulary Game, you may have to provide nearly all of the synonyms. Once you have been playing for a while, your child should be able to make contributions.

Once your child has mastered the Vocabulary Game using synonyms, switch things up and use antonyms!