TLS Books
Dictionary Skills Review
Why do we use a dictionary? Your scholars will tell you why while demonstrating their dictionary skills. In addition to stating the purpose of using dictionaries, they will also show what they know about guide words, alphabetizing, and...
Curated OER
Dictionary Skills Review
Elementary and middle schoolers write 12 words in alphabetical order. They answer seven questions using the dictionary skills of pronunciation, breaking words into syllables and finding definitions. Then they answer five questions about...
Curated OER
Creating a Picture Dictionary
Second graders create a reading, vocabulary,picture dictionary on the computer. They participate in becoming familiar with some basic capabilities of a word processor. They build vocabulary, spelling, and dictionary skills, reinforce...
Curated OER
Dictionary Detective
Build your class's dictionary skills with this fun game. The activity allows learners to better understand dictionary usage, spelling, and vocabulary. By the end of this activity, they should be skilled word finders.
Curated OER
Student Dictionary
Third graders practice dictionary skills. They use a digital camera and insert pictures from a floppy disk into a document. They play a game in which they are handed an anonymous definition of each other and must find each other in class.
Curated OER
New Words: Make a Conservation Dictionary
Gosh dictionaries are great, and your class gets to make one of their own. They look up and write down the dictionary definition to nine words related to conservation and pollution prevention. They list their words alphabetically for...
Macmillan Education
Skills and Attitudes
What kinds of skills and attitudes are valued in a work environment? Using this set of worksheets and collaborative activities, your pupils will develop important life skills and consider what is necessary for getting and keeping a job.
Curated OER
Guide Word Game
In pairs, learners describe and use guide words to locate words in a dictionary. This is a timed activity, where points can be earned by completing the goal first. Tip: Have kids look up weird words in the dictionary, and then come up...
Teach-nology
Root Words Activity
A study of prefixes and root words can help your learners with their word choice in writing. Participants review the meaning of 13 prefixes before adding them to root words and defining the new words.
Curated OER
Dictionary Work - Entry Words
Second graders examine the use of entry words in the dictionary. In this dictionary use lesson, learners look at guide words in a children's dictionary as the teacher/librarian describes the characteristics of each entry. They complete...
Curated OER
Guide Words in a Dictionary
Second and third graders match the five pairs of guide words to the words in a list that should appear on the same page in a dictionary. They look at a second set of five pairs of guide words and circle the word (from three choices) that...
Curated OER
Dictionary Work
Here is a handy one-pager useful for any spelling work. Learners write 10 words from their spelling lists in the first column. They find them in the dictionary and write the page number and guide words in the subsequent columns. I'd use...
Prestwick House
Vocabulary Activity Sheet
What does it mean to stream a program? How do you know if you're watching a mash-up? If you don't know these words, reach for your handy Merriam-Webster dictionary, because they're there! A series of fill-in-the-blank questions prompt...
Curated OER
Dictionary Bluff
Middle schoolers practice their dictionary skills by participating in a game of words with correct and incorrect definitions. They must work in pairs to determine the incorrect definitions and uses for a word.
Curated OER
Revising Writing: Plain English
Eschew obfuscation! Using dictionaries, writers revise a complicated text so that it reads more simply and improves the clarity of the passage. Focusing on word meanings, they revise the sample worksheets and then present their...
Curated OER
Learning About Homonyms
I don't know why but I love teaching homonym lessons. This one encourages learners to look up and write a definition for a set of 10 different homonyms. Tip: Put new knowledge to the test and have the class fix a story that contains...
Curated OER
Placing Words in a Dictionary
In this language arts instructional activity, students will strengthen alphabetizing skills. Kids analyze a list of 24 words that all begin with the same letter. Students place the words correctly in one of 6 dictionary pages with guide...
Curated OER
Mixed Up Dictionary
In this language arts instructional activity, students locate inaccuracies in a sorted list. Students study a dictionary page with 40 words and the guide words, and identify the words which do not belong.
Curated OER
The Catcher in the Rye: List-Group-Label Activity
Here's a list-group-label vocabulary activity for The Catcher in the Rye that will knock readers out, it really will! Groups sort, label, and define a list of words taken from Salinger’s novel. Complete directions for the activity, the...
Curated OER
Spelling Activity
Sometimes you can add an s to a word to form its plural. Sometimes you can't. Help your class learn how to pluralize irregular words like calf, woman, and half. After, have them study the prefixes un, de, pre, dis, and re in the colorful...
Curated OER
Student Dictionary
Third graders examine the concept of alphabetizing. They develop a class dictionary, creating definitions of themselves, and typing in their names, pronunciation, and the definitions, and inserting their picture into their document.
Curated OER
What is a Dictionary?
Second graders explore the purpose of a dictionary. In this library media lesson plan, 2nd graders explore My First Dictionary and identify guidewords, entry words, and captions. Students list ways they can use the dictionary.
Curated OER
Dictionary Skills
Students use a dictionary to review their spelling words. They discover how to use guide words in the dicotionary to find the words. They must write their spelling word and the page and guide words found on the page where the word is found.
Scholastic
Frindle Lesson Plan
"Who says a pen has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle?" Inspired by this quote from the award-winning novel written by Andrew Celements, this lesson allows children to invent their own terms for common classroom objects,...