ENHANCE
Your
VOCABULARY
With
TONE
Teacher Resources:
Vocabulary Activities
Activities for Week #1
Theme: GOOD EFFORT – A GOOD WORKER
COMMENDABLE – Worthy of recognition or praise
DILIGENT – Quietly and steadily working, especially in detail or exactness
EXEMPLARY – Worthy of imitation
INDUSTRIOUS – Hard-working
PERSISTENT – Refusing to give up or let go
Exercise A:
Some of the words on the list have other words closely associated with them that give you a hint
about the word’s meaning. Can you explain what these words have to do with our list?
Example:
 Persist
 Industry
 Commend
Exercise B:
Create a compliment:
Compliment someone for a job well done, using these starters:
Example: Amanda, your clay pot was so exemplary that we all imitated it.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
A school team wins a tough match
A classmate brings a grade up
Your report card is the best ever
Someone works hard at a mathematical concept and becomes a master
You are a boss giving someone a raise
Your own?
Activities for Week #2
THEME: OUTLOOK - Degrees of looking at things
OPTIMISTIC – Expecting everything to come out all right; hopeful; OPTIMIST
PESSIMISTIC – Tending to expect the worst possible outcome; PESSIMIST
PRAGMATIC – Willing to see things as they really are and deal with them sensibly;
PRAGMATIST
REALISTIC – True to life or nature; REALIST
SKEPTICAL – Tending to doubt or question things; SKEPTIC
Exercise A: Meaning Spectrum
Two of the words on our list are antonyms – opposites. Can you arrange the other
words so that the meaning changes from one extreme to the other?
optimistic _______________
pessimistic
_______________
_______________
Exercise B: Act it Out
The following statements have different meanings depending on the TONE that
you are using. Use your acting skills and say the following as an optimist,
pessimist, pragmatist, realist, or skeptic.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
You what me to do what?
I believe that.
Yes, I’ll do that right away.
You won the lottery
That is a beautiful baby.
Activities for Week #8
THEME: BEGINNER -A person who is inexperienced
AMATEUR -Practicing an art or occupation for the love of it, but not as a profession
DILETTENTE- A superficial amateur; someone who claims an interest but lacks real
Knowledge (of the subject)
FLEDGLING- A young bird
NEOPHYTE - Someone who is new, young or inexperienced
NOVICE - An apprentice or beginner in any business or occupation; often associated
with nuns
Exercise A:
Which word fits best? Improvise a sentence about…
A.
B.
C.
D.
Your first attempt at something new.
Watching a beginner’s dance class.
The dreams of an American Idol contestant.
An awful singer who shouldn’t sing the National Anthem.
(Suggested: A – neophyte, novice; B – fledgling; C – amateur; D – dilettante)
Exercise B:
Instructions – Project the page titled “Beginners Pictures” on the next page and talk through the
hints for each word. Answer key is below for teacher reference.
Olympians are
supposed to be
amateurs, competing
for the love of sports
She’s trying to pass off a
cat as a fur coat because
she’s pretending to be
something that she’s not.
Baby bird
“The Sound of Music”
– Maria is dressed
differently. She’s in the
Novitiate. She’s a
“starter nun.” You can
be a novice at many
things.
This character from The
Matrix is called “Neo.”
Neo means new.
(Neologism, neonatal,
neo..what? Neophyte).
Compare/Contrast
Instructions: Choose any two words from this week’s Words of the Week list and explain how
they are similar and how they are different.
Example: Arrogant and Proud
Both words
Arrogant has a negative connotation. Arrogant people are full of themselves and try to prove that
they are better than others.
Proud has a more positive connotation. People who are proud have a high self-opinion but do not
boast it to others as much as arrogant people.
Your Turn! ______________________________ and ______________________________
Similarities:
Differences:
Antonyms of the Same Degree
The Words of the Week are all synonyms, but they are different degrees of “severity.” For
example, to “adore” is less severe than to “idolize.”
Instructions: Choose three of the Words of the Week and rank them in order of severity (least to
most). Then, come up with an antonym for each that is similar in degree of severity.
Example:
Persistent
Willing
Stubborn
Yielding
Obstinate
Relenting
Note how “persistent” is less severe than “obstinate.” Their antonyms, “willing” and “relenting,”
are opposites, but of the same degree.
Your Turn! ______________________, ______________________, _____________________
Antonyms: ______________________, ______________________, _____________________
4-Square Vocabulary
This activity is adaptable for your content area(s), your lessons, and/or your students’ needs. It’s
quite simple. Have your students create a 4-blocked graphic organizer for each vocabulary word.
Then designate what each block requires of the student. Here are c]some variations of what can
be done with this activity:
1. Vocabulary word: __________________________________
Part of speech:
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
Use the word in an original sentence:
2. Vocabulary word: _________________________________
Page number in your text where you can find
the word:
Rewrite the sentence in which the word is
used:
What does this word remind you of or think
about?
Use the word in an original sentence:
3. Vocabulary word: ____________________________
Root word and its meaning:
Suffix and its meaning:
Prefix and its meaning:
Use the word in an original sentence:
Famous People
Can you think of a famous person in history or current events who could be said to have the
qualities of this theme? Describe them using the words.
Nature
Many of our words can be used to describe actions in the plant, animal, mineral worlds and
more. Think of something non-human that the words could be applied to.
Derivatives
A. (Teacher lists root words that our word is derived from or related to
B. Some of the words on the list have other words closely associated with them that give
you a hint about the word’s meaning. Can you guess what these words have to do with
our list?
(Example – Good Effort Theme: Example – Exemplary; Persist – Persistent, Industry
- industrious; Commend –commendable)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Create It
Create a compliment using a word from the list.
Others: instruction,
question,
exclamation
???__________
Improv
Which word fits best? Improvise a sentence using your word…
F. In a sporting situation.
G. Referring to your skills at school
H. Something good or bad about this weekend
I. You and a co-worker at work
J. When you are thinking deeply about something
K. When you have a strong emotion that you want to hide or let out
L. On a date
M. AT the dinner table
.
Music
Which instrument, music genre, or performer could be said to represent or use each word?
Explain why.
Visual Arts
Which medium, work of art, or style could be said to represent or invoke each word? Explain
why.
Meaning Spectrum
A. Synonyms – Can you arrange the words so that they go from mild to strong?
Can you give them a numerical value from 1 to 5?
B. Opposites –Perhaps two of the words on our list are antonyms – opposites. Can you
arrange the other words so that the meaning changes from one extreme to the other?
-2
-1
0
+1
+2
Musical Meaning Spectrum
A. If this were music, which word would start a crescendo and which would finish it?
Arrange the synonyms from soft to loud.
B. Musicians, arrange the antonyms – opposites – in a musical way – perhaps loud-softloud.
Act it Out
The following statements have different meanings depending on the TONE that you are using.
Use your acting skills and say the following using one of the words on our list.
1. You what me to do what?
2. I believe that.
3. Yes, I’ll do that right away.
4. You won the lottery
5. That is a beautiful baby.
6. Others?
Mannequins
Students guide other students to act out a pose that shows the word or theme.
Draw it
Draw a picture that represents or illustrates a word and have others guess it.
Describe an Object or Person in the Room
Find a complimentary way to use the words of the week to describe someone or something in the
classroom. If it could be a negative connotation, assign it to a fictitious Joe Schmo or Ima
Goodstudent. Write the sentence on the board and have students guess at what you are implying.
Have the students work in pairs to write their own sentences and have their partner guess.
Context Clues
Instructions: Assign a vocabulary word to each person in the classroom. Each student must
come up with three sentences for each word that includes context clues that give the vocabulary
word’s meaning. The topics for the three sentences are: 1) Something in your life. 2) Something
in the classroom. 3) Free/About anything the student desires.
If time permits have them share with a partner or group OR have students share with the
classroom but leaving the vocabulary word blank and have the other students try and figure out
which vocabulary word is being used. Allow students to use the Words of the Week list to help
them guess. This could be utilized as a review or a game.
Example:
Vocabulary Word: LETHARGIC
I was feeling so lethargic that I could barely bring myself to brush my teeth this morning.
Jamal is so lethargic that he did not even do his warm up that was super easy.
During the offseason players become so lethargic that they put on a lot of weight.
Roll the Dice
Can be played as a game in pairs,
small groups, or as a whole class
activity.
Roll a die. The number that comes up
corresponds to one the tasks in the
picture on the right. If completed as a
whole class, everyone must do the task
that is rolled. If done in pairs or small
groups, each person rolls and
completes the corresponding task.
Continue rolling until each person has
done two, three, four, etc. different
tasks.
Pictionary!
This would be a good review game at the end of the week, after discussing all five Words of the
Week.
 Groups of 4
 Two people draw the same word
 Partners guess
 The first team to win 3/5 matches wins.
Nostalgia
Tell a timed 30 second story (fiction or nonfiction) about a time that illustrates the vocabulary
word
OR
Uses the desired term.
Class must guess the term from a list.
Comic Strip
With a five-panel document students will generate images or a story where the character's
emotion is heightened throughout the five panels. Each panel should indicate the word that is
being displayed.
Hot Seat
Have one student sit in the front of the classroom on a chair facing away from the blackboard.
On the board you will write a vocabulary word but the person in the front of the room is not
allowed to look at it. The student will ask yes or no questions to his classmates to determine what
the word might be. The student has 10 questions available until he must guess what the word is.
You can make this an individual contest or you can have the class separated into several teams to
add a competitive element.
Vocabulary Toss
This game requires a chalkboard eraser, or small sponge, and a wastebasket. Divide your class
into two teams and have them stand in two single-file lines parallel to each other. This game
combines a vocabulary guessing game with a basketball shooting game. Ask the player at the
front of one team to define a vocabulary word. If he gets it right, his team gets a point and he has
a chance to earn a second point if he makes the eraser into the basket. If he gets the word wrong,
the player on the other team has a chance to answer it and shoot the basket. Keep rotating players
until everybody gets at least one turn. The team with the most points at the end wins.
Funny Stories
First, write definitions specific to each of this week’s Words of the Week. Although they are all
synonyms, each one’s definition should be slightly different from the others. Then write a
wacky, funny paragraph that uses all five of this week’s Words of the Week.