This week, let’s look more closely at one of the most beloved word games of all time…Word Search.  Everyone probably has memories of sitting with a book of Word Search puzzles on either a long car ride, or at a grandparent’s house, or perhaps while waiting at the doctor’s office. 

Well, just as with most word games, the Word Search puzzle has gone “high-tech” and is now available to play online in many different formats.  The Word Search game at Vocabulary.co.il. has some of its own unique attributes, so I thought it might be fun to explore those in a little more detail for this post.

When you first click on the Word Search game within the site, this is the screen that comes up:

You will notice that you have a few options at the top before beginning game play.  You can choose a level - - either easy or hard, the length of your game - - either short, regular, or long, and whether or not to use the game timer. 

Then, below your game options are your category options for vocabulary.  If you are studying a particular theme in your classroom, if you are looking for grade-level vocabulary, or if you just have a particular subject you are interested in, you can choose that category to use for game play.  To see a complete list of game categories available, click here.

Once you have chosen your category, you will click on the play button to have the words shuffled and added to your game grid.

You can also use the menu at the bottom of your game grid screen to either go back to the previous page, solve the puzzle, print out the puzzle for solving offline, changing the font size of the puzzle, or turning the game audio on or off.

To play the game, you simply search the grid for words in the word list.  They may be listed either horizontally, vertically, forwards, backwards, or even diagonally!  Once you have located a word to solve, click on the first letter of the word with your cursor and drag the cursor over each of the other letters in the word to select it.  The word will then be highlighted as “found,” on both the grid and the word list.

Once you have completed the entire puzzle, or clicked the “solve” button to have it solved for you, you can click the “back” button to return to the main game screen to choose another puzzle.

For more ideas about using word search puzzles in your home, classroom, or homeschool, check out these posts:

• Grade Level Vocabulary Games
• Vocabulary Games for Homeschoolers
• Self-Study for ESL Vocabulary
• Those Wonderful Word Searches

One of the most familiar games on our website is the Cross Words game.  Crossword puzzles have been an American brain-challenge staple since the early 1900’s, and they haven’t really lost steam.  They’ve simply become more “high-tech.”

If you have been wondering how to play the Cross Words game on Vocabulary.co.il, then here’s an overview:

Once you are on the main game page, you will click on “Cross Words” from the top column listing.

At that point, the game will take you to the options page, where you can choose your vocabulary topic, and your difficulty level.  Then, you will click on START to begin the game.

When the game opens, you will see your puzzle screen load, and a list of menu choices to the right of the screen.  Each of the menu options is designed to help you accomplish what you want to within the game.

• check: holding down the check button will identify incorrect words
• hint: deducts points from your score, but allows you to reveal unsolved letters in the puzzle
• solve: for when you simply have to give up and want to see the solved puzzle
• floating window: turns the floating window on or off
• new: allows you to begin a new puzzle
• print: allows you to print your puzzle for solving offline
• help: reminds you of the rules of play

To play, you simply move your cursor across the screen to see the hints for each empty set of word boxes.  By click on the first letter of the box and beginning to type the word, you can complete your word choice.  Then you complete the puzzle, word by word through all 12 choices.  If you aren’t able to solve a particular word, you can ask for a hint to receive a letter clue, although it will lower your game score.  And, of course, you can click “Solve” to reveal any words you weren’t able to figure out on your own.

Cross Words is a fun and interactive way to practice vocabulary at any level of English learning.  Stop by Vocabulary.co.il and practice your crossword puzzle strategy today!

Do you remember the feeling that used to come over you when your teacher would announce a “pop quiz”? Beads of sweat would come pouring down your face as the papers were handed out, and your hands would shake so much you could hardly hold the pencil straight. A quiz was something to be dreaded, endured, and gotten over with as quickly as possible.

So what is it about the computer that makes a quiz so much more bearable? If you’ve spent any time on Facebook at all, you know that most of us are willing to take just about any quiz you throw at us as long as it is digital!  What kind of romantic are you? How much trivia do you know from your favorite TV show? There is something about simply pointing and clicking that makes an online quiz seem more like play than effort. And when you get the final results from your responses, it doesn’t seem to matter whether you did well or not, because it wasn’t some overbearing teacher grading you. No, it was your non-judgmental computer!

Teachers have known about this computer-bias for quiz taking for some time, and they have used it to their advantage. Many teachers upload all of their class quizzes and tests to the net, so that students can feel more relaxed and engaged as they attempt to show what they know. And it works!

This non-stressful quiz strategy is the idea behind the vocabulary quiz game on www.vocabulary.co.il . With two skill levels, two timer settings, and 16 fun topics to choose from, students and non-students alike will find themselves actually having fun testing their vocabulary knowledge. Whether you are practicing vocabulary for school, speech therapy, or English as a Second Language, why not have fun doing it? Try our vocabulary quiz game or one of the eleven other enjoyable vocabulary games on our site today.

If you are a teacher looking for classroom extensions for a study on Martin Luther King Jr. or the Civil Rights movement, you may want to check out some of the great spelling lists at SpellingCity.© Here are some examples of what you may find there…

• Civil Rights
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Rosa Parks
• African American History
• I Have a Dream
• Civil Rights Movement

And, of course, as always on SpellingCity, you can also create your own lists, based on a specific book, unit, or subject you are studying.  Then your students can practice those words, play games with them, and even use them as printable handwriting worksheets.  This is a wonderful way to extend a study on Martin Luther King Jr. in celebration of this National Holiday and improve your student social studies vocabulary and spelling.

Have you signed up for a premium membership at SpellingCity.com yet?  With automatic test grading, a student grade book, complete activity tracking for each student, telephone support, and access to premium games, a premium membership is definitely a MUST for frequent users of the site.  Click here to find out more.

Children with dyslexia are often at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to acquiring new vocabulary.  Those with reading challenges must rely, for the most part, on building their word bank by the spoken word, rather than the written word.  Even more frustrating, some children with dyslexia also struggle with auditory processing issues, so even spoken vocabulary is not always easy to acquire and internalize.

For these children, it is even more important to receive focused and individualized vocabulary instruction designed with their strengths and weaknesses in mind.  A multisensory approach to vocabulary learning, for example, is often helpful.  By using word activities that involve touch, sound, and sight, children with learning weaknesses in one mode can compensate with their strengths in others.

Children with reading differences also usually benefit from a dual approach of both phonetic and sight word instruction in vocabulary.  This combination focus on both the visual and auditory aspects of language can help cement new words and word meanings for those with dyslexia.

Other ideas for helping students with dyslexia improve their vocabulary:

• previewing new vocabulary in a book passage before having them read the passage.
• be sure to interject unfamiliar or unknown words into everyday conversations with them
• teaching them how to use online dictionaries and thesauruses - - especially those with auditory support
• encouraging them to play word games both off and online, such as the ones at Vocabulary.co.il

Image by hebedesign via Flickr

If English happens to be your second language, you may have a very special New Years resolution this year: building your English vocabulary. 

If that sounds like a resolution that might be too difficult to keep, then check out the following simple tips for making English vocabulary learning fun and interesting.

1) Join a social network for others wanting to practice their English.  Sites like EnglishForums allow new English speakers to create a profile and interact with many other people from around the world who want to practice their language skills and make new friends.

2) Have an English movie marathon…call together some of your ESL buddies and pick out your favorite movies, or movies you have all been wanting to see, and then watch them…completely in English…and completely with English subtitles.  See how much dialogue you can catch as it whizzes by on the screen!

3) Hold an English karaoke contest.  Send out invitations to people that you know are all trying to learn English and set up a one-night English Karaoke competition.  Remember - - all songs sung MUST be completely in English!!

4) Spend a little time each day playing the fun games at Vocabulary.co.il. Just 10-15 minutes a day of game-playing at the Vocabulary.co.il website will quickly start to make a difference on your English vocabulary knowledge.  The games are fun, and can be played from any computer with an internet connection, so you can fit your practice into even a few minutes at the coffee shop!

You can probably discover many other fun and easy ways to practice your English vocabulary, too.  Setting a New Year’s resolution doesn’t have to be boring or time-consuming. 

Happy New Year from those of us at Vocabulary.co.il!!

You don’t have to sit down long with a piece of classic literature to realize that your vocabulary is more limited than you think.  The wordsmiths of the literature world weave a wide variety of English into their works, and often they aren’t always words that we come in contact with in daily conversation.  That’s why classic literature is a treasure trove of source material for vocabulary study.

Spelling City is full of lists that could be used to increase both vocabulary and spelling power.  Here are some great lists, broken down by grade level, for some of the most popular literary classics:

Elementary Lists for Classic Literature

• The Velveteen Rabbit
• Alice in Wonderland
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• A Bear Called Paddington
• Goodnight Moon
• Ginger Pye
• Wind in the Willows
• Ben and Me
• Make Way for Ducklings
• Anne of Green Gables

Jr High Lists for Classic Literature

• Little Women
• The Last of the Mohicans
• Robinson Crusoe’
• A Christmas Carol
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
• A Wrinkle in Time
• Call of the Wild
• Diary of Anne Frank
• Hunchback of Notre Dame

Every standardized test that involves vocabulary has some form of “fill in the blank” style question.  In other words, here is a sentence with a word missing; you choose from the following word options to complete the sentence.

It’s a very basic way to check a student’s word comprehension using sentence context.  Showing that a student can choose an appropriate word to complete a sentence conveys that the student not only has an understanding of the word’s meaning, but can transfer that meaning in writing.

There are very few interesting ways to practice this skill outside of the testing scenario.  Worksheets may be effective, but leave much to be desired as far as student motivation.

One fun new game at Vocabulary.co.il may be an easy answer.  Match It is an interactive vocabulary game that uses both visual and kinesthetic input to re-create the “fill in the blank” sentence scenario.

With eight sentences on one side of the game screen, and eight possible word options on the other, players click between the two columns to match words and sentences.  When they have completed their choices, they click on the “Submit” button to see which words they have correctly matched, and are then allowed to try again on the words they may have missed the first time.

Players are also offered options for skill level (easy, medium, or difficult word choices), and whether they want the word choices to be alphabetical (more difficult), or random.  To make the game even more challenging, some words are plural and/or variations of other words, so the specific word must be chosen in order to be correct.  This reinforces not only vocabulary, but grammar and spelling mastery, as well.

An example game of Match It can be seen below:

Check out Match It, and many other terrific vocabulary-building games at Vocabulary.co.il.

I have this weird thing with song lyrics.  I can hear music I haven’t heard in 20 years or more, and suddenly I will realize that I STILL remember the words!!  It’s kind of freaky, actually.  It’s like there is this little “compartment” up in my brain that stores song lyrics without my knowledge!

But the great news about that is that song lyrics are the perfect tool for building your English vocabulary!  While simple vocabulary flashcards or vocabulary books may help over a long period of time, there is probably no faster way to learn new words than to SING THEM. 

Even though French is certainly not my native language, and I have never had an official French lesson in my life, I can still sing every word of “Frere Jacques.”  And long before I had ever had formal Spanish grammar courses, I could easily sing the Spanish folksong “La Cucaracha.”  The melodies of these popular tunes made the lyrics stick in my head - - even to this day!

So if you are hoping to help build your students’ English vocabulary, songs are a terrific way to start.  The Science Songs at Learning Games for Kids are the perfect resource for covering a variety of new English words because they combine video and music with the words.  This auditory and visual combination is even more effective for retaining new vocabulary.

And for other fun ways to build vocabulary skills, check out the games at Vocabulary.co.il.

We at Vocabulary.co.il are curious.  We get some feedback on our vocabulary building games and articles, but it never quite allows us that “peek into the classroom” that we would like. 

If you are a classroom teacher, using Vocabulary.co.il in your daily classroom or homework schedule, we would love to hear from you.  Sound off in the comments, and let us hear about your creative ways for using the features of the site with your students.

• Do you play classroom games?
• Do you use the Topics Listing to create vocabulary “theme weeks”?
• Do you print out specific game puzzles for your students?  If so…which ones?

Head over to the comments section of our blog to tell us how you are using the vocabulary software with your students.  Vocabulary.co.il is proud to be one of your educational technology resources.  Stay tuned to the site for new games and new ideas for making vocabulary fun!