Keeping Track of "Word of the Day" With Vocabulary Journals

I have been using "Word of the Day" for several years and love its results in my classroom!

 I was originally inspired by Madeline Noonan in this fantastic video on Teaching Channel:



I have loved having both the definition and the word on the board under our "Word of the Day" sign, available as a freebie HERE.

One of the ways I wanted to strengthen the use of these words throughout the year was to try and have the kids keep a record of each word and have its meaning, a sentence, and more in easy reach. This way, they could use these words in their writing, for vocabulary study, to help deepen their familiarity with content words, and more!

I searched high & low and decided that the Vocabulary Journal by my friend Jen at The Teacher's Cauldron fit all of these needs in a very third-grade friendly way!

Click the pic to find this great resource in Jen's TpT Shop!

I copied these journal pages front-back and put them in the brads in the inside of their Writing Folders. This was they can stay accessible all year long when they are writing :)

Every day at the end of Morning Meeting, I will introduce our Word of the Day along with a gesture to go with the definition. We use it throughout the morning and at the beginning of Writer's Workshop, I will have them start by copying the WOTD into their Vocabulary Journals.

Each A-Z page has room for three words and for each word, students need to:

• write the word
• write its definition
• use it in a sentence
• illustrate it
• rate how well they know the word

I always model this with my own journal on the projector, so students can use my example sentence and copy it, or they can get creative and make up their own. There is also a Table of Contents at the beginning to keep the words organized.

I have loved working on these and can't wait for the kids to be able to use this fantastic resource all year long!

Do you use Word of the Day for your transitions? How's it going?

Have a fantastic weekend :)