Building up your children’s vocabulary is essential for their language acquisition skills. Remember that language acquisition is a gradual, long-term process, and you cannot rush it. There’s no vocabulary list that you can give your kids for memorization. Instead, gamifying their vocabulary-building experience can be beneficial.
Learning vocabulary can be enjoyable for kids when presented in the form of games. Here are some fun vocabulary games to help your kids expand their word knowledge:
1. Word Hunt
Word Hunt is a simple game you can play with your kids to improve their vocabulary. You will need reading material, like a book, newspaper, marker, and timer. Then, set up a theme (for example, outdoors) and tell your kids to highlight all the words that fit this theme (such as parks, sunny, etc.). You can also set a time limit, but that is optional. At the end, discuss the words your kids found and ask them about the meanings of the words and how they are used in the text context.
Word Hunt is beneficial as a vocabulary-building exercise as it encourages the recognition of words in context, helping build familiarity with different terms. It also introduces new words and reinforces the meanings of familiar ones.
2. Scrabble
Scrabble is perhaps the best-known vocabulary-building game. In Scrabble, you start seven letter times from a bag. Each letter tile is assigned a specific numerical value. Players take turns forming words on the board, connecting to existing words if possible. Points are scored based on the letters used and any premium squares covered. The game continues until all letters are used or players cannot form valid words. At the end, the player with the highest score wins.
Scrabble is beneficial for vocabulary-building in several ways. It helps kids learn the correct spelling and new words as they discover and use them in the game.
3. Word Ladder
Word ladder is a fun vocabulary game where you change one letter of the word each time to get a target word. Remember that the starting and target words should be the same length. Starting with the chosen word, players change one letter at a time to create a new word in each step. The goal is to reach the target word in the specified steps. For example, if the starting word is “Find” and the target word is “Word,” the sequence might be: Find → Fond → Ford → Word. There is a great website wordladdersolver.com which solves word ladder problems for you. So you may list out some pair of words and let your children perform it on daily basis. Do ask them to find all the word ladders and learn the vocabularies found through them.
4. Hangman
We probably have all played Hangman in our childhood! You can pass this traditional game to your kids while building their vocabulary.
In Hangman, one person (the word setter) chooses a word but keeps it a secret from others. They will then write down underscores representing each letter from the word and draw an empty gallows. The other player(s) take turns suggesting letters. The word setter reveals the guessed letters in their correct positions. For each incorrect guess, the word setter will draw a part of a “hangman.” The word setter wins if the hangman is wholly drawn before the word is guessed.
5. Wordle
In 2022’s start, a vocabulary game came out of nowhere and took the world by storm. This vocabulary game, Wordle, is now hosted on The New York Times.
In Wordle, you must guess a five-letter word in six or fewer tries. After each attempt, every letter in your word will be colored green or yellow or remain uncolored. A green letter indicates that the correct letter is placed at the proper position, whereas a yellow letter means that the letter appears in the word but not in that position. An uncolored letter is not part of the word.
Conclusion
As your child grows older, they need to have an expansive vocabulary. Gamifying their experience of language acquisition is found to be beneficial, so vocabulary games can help expand your child’s vocabulary. From classics like Scrabble and Hangman to newer vocabulary games like Wordle, you have many options!