In solving riddles such as these, students mentally gather data, make inferences, draw conclusions, problem-solve, and BUILD VOCABULARY.  For teachers, they can be a great way to introduce a new topic or supplement a new unit.  Students are more likely to remember a fact they learned via a riddle than via a fact sheet alone.

For hundreds of years, people have gained new vocabulary through the use of song lyrics and poems.  Rhyming word riddles have much the same effect because it is simply easier to remember something that the brain interprets as a rhyme - - especially a funny or clever rhyme!

Vocabulary.co.il has it’s own online version of these rhyming word games.  The one-syllable game of rhyming riddles is called Hig Pig and the two-syllable version is Higgy Piggy.  Players are given ten clues, one after the other, and are asked to decode the riddle by providing the rhyming answers. 

The average English speaker can usually decode the meaning from common usage, but of course, not everyone is an average English speaker.  For some people, interpreting idioms and slang is more than just a little difficult. 

ESL/EFL

Non-native English speakers naturally take English expressions literally.  Trying to mentally translate from one language to another, and on top of that having to figure out what the speaker is actually trying to say is difficult at best.  One of the most difficult things for ESL/EFL students is trying to learn English expressions.

Autism/Aspergers

Another group of people who have difficulty with idioms and slang phrases are people with literal thinking.  Many people with autism or Asperger’s Syndrome do not understand the nuances of hidden or implied meanings.

Understanding idioms is also an important part of being successful at end-of-grade standardized tests and college entrance exams.  These tests will often check for correct use of idiomatic expressions.

While idioms are best understood through usage, rather than instruction, students can still improve their understanding of these slang terms by playing online games with them such as the idiom games at Vocabulary.co.il .  These games allow the player to choose the correct literal meaning of each of the slang terms presented.  They are a fun and interactive way to practice the important interpretation and decoding skills required to take part in common language and conversation.

Context refers to the words or sentences that surround a particular word, idea or passage which either greatly influence or outright define it.  In reading, it is especially important to master the skill of figuring out a new word’s definition by paying attention to the words before and after it. 

There are four types of context clues that are important when trying to either discover the main idea of a paragraph or understand an unfamiliar word in a sentence: Definition or Restatement, Synonym, Antonym/Opposite/Contrast, and Example or Explanation.

Because of its importance in and out of the classroom, context is introduced early in a child’s education. For example, the primary grades learn context thematically, such as through Dolch words definitions, math definitions or science definitions and context games. As kids in grades 3-5 are encouraged to read chapter books, they are taught context not only through subject-specific materials like science words definitions but also as it relates to books they may be reading in class, including Tom Sawyer vocabulary games or Bridge to Terabithia vocabulary games. At the middle school level, it becomes particularly important for kids to determine the context of FCAT math vocabulary definitions correctly just as high school students must be familiar with the SAT math vocabulary definitions, for a thorough understanding of how to use SAT context clues is crucial.

Whatever the level, learning about context is as important to discovering the main idea in a paragraph or understanding vocabulary in context as it is to making inferences in a real-life situation. Fun online games, such as the ones on Vocabulary.co.il  are an excellent way to practice one’s context and definitions abilities.

Sadly, not everyone got to have this same preparation for life as a “word nerd.” So for those of you without a word-obsessed parent, you might have had to learn root words the more traditional way.  A root word is simply the form of a word after all affixes (prefixes and suffixes) have been removed.  For example, the word “port” is the root word for export (which has a prefix) and portable (which has a suffix).

Learning to recognize word roots early on is crucial in a child’s education as it not only helps carry spelling skills over to reading fluency but also greatly increases general comprehension skills, reading or otherwise. A fun way for kids to build their repertoire of root words is by playing online root word games.

Vocabulary.co.il provides word resources for teachers which are useful for creating both root words lesson plans and root words worksheets. Different root words are introduced at different educational levels. Elementary school root words are specifically selected for students in grades three through five, while middle school root words are geared toward sixth through eighth graders. At a more demanding level, high school root words provide excellent college prep material for students in ninth through twelfth grade as root words on standardized tests gain more importance.  An understanding of root words is particularly helpful to ESL students in terms of word recognition and phrase comprehension.

Unless your dad also happens to be a word nerd, then you might find that our online word root games are just the ticket for helping to improve this valuable skill.

The English language is the second most widely used language in the world, and the native tongue of over 350 million people!  So many people having a working knowledge of English, in fact, that it has come to be considered as the international, or "global language."  It is no surprise, then, that non-native English speakers are always looking for new and better ways to practice their English vocabulary skills.

Games, such as the Foreign Language and ESL ones on Vocabulary.co.il, are designed to make learning English fun and effective at the same time. Vocabulary games are an active, rather than passive way to build language skills, and do not require long stretches of study time, but can be played anytime you have a few spare minutes.  Kids and adults alike love learning foreign words and phrases using fun matching games.

Whether you or your student’s native language is French, Spanish, or German, Vocabulary.co.il has a game to help. French students will definitely enjoy the French and English Word Match.

Spanish-speakers will gain skills by trying out games such as Math Match, Fill in the Blank, and Word Match.

And those with German as their first language will benefit from playing the German English word match.  Each of the foreign language games and ALL the games on the site will be helpful to both ESL students and teachers looking to make vocabulary practice fun.

Homophones - - words (or phrases or letters) that, although they are pronounced the same, differ in meaning - - can definitely be tricky.  Fortunately, there are many homophone resources for teachers available for creating homophone lesson plans, homophone worksheets and homophone classroom activities. Also online, a kids’ thesaurus is a useful way to create homophone lists as is a kids’ dictionary.

Homophone games for elementary school students are very popular with third, fourth and fifth graders, while learning homophone definitions in sixth through eighth grade is a good precursor to playing middle school homophone games. High school students can also study homophone relationships while playing high school homophone synonym games — an excellent college prep homophone exercise leading to success on standardized tests (which feature numerous homophone questions).

ESL students also greatly benefit from using fun online homophone games as these help them differentiate English vocabulary words that sound identical but that have different meanings, whether or not they are spelled differently.

How about sharing YOUR homophone weakness in the comment section below??

The average number of compound words in the first grade class was seventy-five! Think hairpin, fireman, shoehorn, keyboard, horseshoe, popcorn, and raindrop. A great hands-on learning activity to help kids see how compound words are put together is with images. For example, for the word keyboard you can find a key and a board and, by placing them together, the word “keyboard” is created!!

Learning compound words, especially through word matching games, is fun for kids. Plus compound words help kids grasp language structure and increase their interest in words - - especially prefixes, suffixes and word roots.  And, because they are such an integral part of the English language, it is common to find compound words on standardized tests.

Some examples of compound words include:

* Noun-Noun Compounds: fireman, newsstand, pigtail, ladybug, classroom
* Noun-Verb Compounds: breastfeeding, finger-pointing
* Verb-Noun Compounds: spoilsport, killjoy, breakfast, pickpocket, crossword
* Verb-Verb Compounds: go and do, up and leave
* Verb-Adverb Compounds: drop-out, fall-out, camp-out
* Adverb-Verb Compounds: intake, backtrack, backdrop, foreground
* Adjective-Noun Compounds: hardware, software, blackboard, shortchange
* Adjective-Verb Compounds: blacklist, shortchange

Vocabulary.co.il has some wonderful interactive compound word games for grades K-5.  Teachers will appreciate how these games are organized by grade level, and students will appreciate how much fun they have while learning!  

When the study of vocabulary and spelling are linked, skills in both are naturally improved.  And a fun way to practice these skills is with grade-targeted spelling and vocabulary games.  At SpellingCity.com, students can enter their own spelling words lists and then choose “test me”, “teach me” or “play”. Many spelling resources are also available to spelling teachers who wish to prepare spelling quizzes.

Vocabulary.co.il also has a great list of spelling and vocabulary games by grade level.  For example, the primary grades learn to spell Dolch words (the 220 most common words in the English language, aka “sight words”), while kids in grades 3-5 are taught to spell science words. At the middle school level, it becomes particularly important for kids to spell FCAT math words correctly just as high school students must practice to spell SAT math terms.

Words are classified as belonging to any of eight parts of speech: verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. Each part of speech tells not what the word is, but how the word is used in a particular sentence or context. In fact, the same word can be a noun in one sentence and a verb or adjective in the next. The word “well” is a perfect example: I don’t feel well today (adverb) / Well! isn’t that something? (interjection) / The well is dry (noun) / His next well visit is with Dr. Smith (adjective).

Parts of speech are introduced early in a child’s education, starting with the main building blocks of a sentence and adding more parts as the grade level progresses. For example, the primary grades are taught the general parts of speech thematically, such as Dolch words parts of speech and some science parts of speech. Kids in grades 3-5 learn more specific material, such as distinguishing between various forms of noun parts of speech as well as adjective synonyms and adjective antonym parts of speech. At the middle school level, it becomes particularly important for kids to determine the parts of speech of FCAT words correctly just as high school students must be familiar with the parts of speech of SAT words.

But just because the parts of speech are a necessary grammar skill doesn’t mean they have to be boring or dry!  On the contrary, Vocabulary.co.il has created some terrific games to make this process an enjoyable and interactive one.  Check out these great grade-specific parts of speech games.

In English, though, we have a word for these shortcuts: CONTRACTIONS. Contractions are shortened forms of a word or words.  We have both formal and informal contractions…with informal ones showing up more often in speech than in writing. 

Examples of common contractions are can’t, don’t, you’ll, aren’t, I’ll, hadn’t, won’t, shouldn’t, isn’t, and it’s.

In a contraction, an apostrophe almost always takes the place of the missing letter(s), for example “don’t” is the contraction for “do not”. An example of an apostrophe-less contraction is “none”, which is the contracted form of “not one”. Because the English language, both spoken and written, is so fond of contractions, it is important for English learners (native or not) to learn to use them correctly as well as to differentiate contractions from possessives as those also rely on apostrophes. The great thing is that learning and teaching contractions can be fun for both students and teachers, especially when using word matching or memory card games.

Whether you are studying for a contractions quiz or looking for a list of common contractions to prepare a contractions lesson plan, there are excellent contractions resources and materials available, including a fun memory match game of contractions for Kindergarten, first grade and second grade as well as contraction games for third grade, fourth grade and fifth grade.

Of course, learning contractions is particularly important for ESL students and speakers of foreign languages who will hear spoken contractions often and will need to be able to both recognize and reproduce them in writing as well as not confuse contractions and possessives.