Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Vocabulary Fun

Vocabulary is very much a regular part of my curriculum. Regardless of what else might be going on, we have a vocab lesson every single week. I give them the list of words and definitions, and then they have to write down the example sentence that I give orally for each word. For example, if the word "ecstatic" is on the list for the week, I might say "Jose was ecstatic on the first day of summer." I always try to give hints about the meaning in my sentence, and the kids then have a week to study before the test. Every week we have a list, and every week I make up sentences.

Last week I decided to have a little fun with the list, and I made a little story out of the words.

1. Bob had a tough dilemma because he couldn't decide whether to invite Nicole or Sarah to the dance.

2. Bob ran down the hall towards the lunchroom because he was famished.

3. In the hall Bob met Sarah and invited her to the dance, but she just looked mortified.

4. Sarah rebuffed Bob's offer because she said he was not rich or handsome enough for her.

5. Sarah swaggered off down the hall with her nose in the air.

6. Poor Bob just lolled his house doing nothing and feeling sad.

7. Pious Nicole attended temple as she always did on the weekend.

8. After temple, Nicole decided to travel in a convoy of cars to go hiking with her friends.

9. As they began their ascent of the mountain they saw their friend Bob in the distance.

10. Bob was crooning a sad song to himself, but then he saw Nicole and smiled.

I know some of these are a little weak, and I do take certain liberties with grammar to make some of them work. However, the kids did get all excited about the prospects for Bob and Nicole. We'll have to see what might happen next week. The list is as follows: amiable, habitual, apparition, ghastly, opponent, diligent, navigate, placate, shambles, and exuberant. Any great ideas?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

At King Arthur's court, his half sister, Morgana pretended to be amiable.

Morgana was really an habitual witch.

Morgana could created an apparition of a dragon

The Dragon's breath had ghastly smell of rotting pickled onions

Morgana's main opponent was Merlin, a Warlock

Merlin took diligent care of Arthur to protect him from Morgana and the stinky dragon

When Arthur sailed to Wales he had to navigate his ship across the waters of the English chanel where the stinky Dragon lived

To placate the ghostly Dragon Arthur purchased 7 large jars of fresh pickled onions.

The store was a shambles, packages all over the floor and falling off the shelves.

When Arthur fed the pickled onions to the Dragon it became exuberant, creating waves that helped send the ship to Wales.

sentences aren't my strong point. Though I do like a good fantasy story :-)