Key Academic Vocabulary for Kindergarten & Beginning Gr. 1
This list is by no means complete. As you work with your students add to the list. Pick and
choose the vocabulary that your students need. Choose words based on what fits your
theme.
under/over/above/below
rhyme
long/short
loud/soft/quiet
beginning/ending/middle
messy/neat/best
poem/song/story
left/right
compound words
around/beside/in front/behind
know/learn/mistake
respect/care
first/last
today/tomorrow/yesterday
week/month
same/different/alike/match
some/much/many
soon/later/now
word endings
walk/run
top/bottom/side
share
equal/even
letters/alphabet
write/print/draw
morning/afternoon/night
spell
sound/syllable/word/sentence
before/after
first/second/third/last
consonant/vowel
cautious/careful
circle/line/straight
live/alive/dead/not alive
hurry/fast/slow
decide/think/predict/choose
address/phone number/live
polite/manners
true/truth/false/lie
pretend/make believe
who/why/when/how
consequences
permission/form/sign
problem/solve
Sample Lesson Plan for Vocabulary Development
Kindergarten
Theme - Farm Animals
Vocabulary Concepts - Beside/In Front/Behind
Answering Questions
Have a toy house or barn and farm animal(s). Teacher or leader of the day places the
animal in front/behind/beside the barn. Ask the students where is the cow?
Following Directions (this can be done in gym or in class)
Have a chair (if in gym use bean bags) for each child direct them to stand beside/behind/in
front. Play Simon Says or Musical Chairs in this way.
Alternately you can give the students blocks and a farm animal and give directions to place
the animal behind/in front/beside the block.
Fine Motor & Expressive Language
Think about your house. Draw a picture of something you can see behind your house.
Have child say “I can see _______ behind my house.” Teacher labels picture.
Music
Using masks, puppets or pictures assign 3 students to be animals.
Put the cow behind the chicken, and the pig beside the chicken of the
To the tune “The leg bones connected to the ankle bone”
The cow is behind the chicken and the chicken is in front of the cow and the piggy is beside
the chicken now dance animals dance. (all students dance around and switch animals)
Phonemic Awareness
Chart theme vocabulary on vocabulary chart placing them on the listed charts. Use these
words to complete word parts activities, rhyme recognition, rhyme completion. See attached
Template of activities. Use concrete items when working with the activities. Ie. Hold up a
toy cow, horse, etc… Say the beginning sound several times, eg. /k/ /k/ /k/ ow, ask the
students what is the beginning sound of cow. Continue on with other beginning animal
sounds. Another option is to have students see two objects (cow, and pig). Say the
beginning sound of one of the two objects. Ask a student to choose which object begins
with that sound.
Lesson Plan for Vocabulary Development
Kindergarten
Theme - Halloween
Vocabulary Concepts – Beginning/Middle/End
Show Sound-Grapheme Patterns
Use large letters that students can hold. Using sounds that you have already covered. Have
3 students come up front and hand them a letter to hold in front of them. Have sitting
students say the sounds of each letter. Talk about which child (letter) is in the
middle/beginning/end.
Answering Questions Receptive and Expressive Language (Story)
Show and talk about the beginning of the book the middle of the book and the end of the
book. Read a Halloween story such as one by Robert Munch or a Winnie the Pooh story.
Once done ask the students to remember when this _______ happened. For example “When
did Winnie the Pooh wake up? Was it at the beginning or in the middle or at the end of the
story?” Find that page and show students – “Oh you are right he woke up at the beginning
of the story!”
Following Directions, Listening, Sequencing
Have a pumpkin, ghost and witch and a paper with an arrow going right to left (and perhaps
indicating “start”. Tell Children they are going to make a pattern but not to touch any
pictures until you say “go”. Tell students, “Put the ghost at the beginning the witch in the
middle and the pumpkin at the end – Go!” Fun tack your pictures on your own paper and
get ready to show the students, “Does yours match mine?” Ask one of the students to say
where their pictures are or ask, “Suzie where is your Ghost?
You can do this same activity with sounds you have covered. Say a sound pattern like pps or
pop see if the students matched your pattern and see if they can tell if it’s a real word or not.
Fine Motor & Expressive Language
Have students glue a pumpkin a witch and a ghost on a black paper. Give instructions and
show – “Glue the witch on first. Put the pumpkin in the middle, put the ghost on the end.
Once the children are done have them come up so you can ask, “What did you put in the
middle? What did you put at the end? What did you put first?” You could also do parts of a
cat.
Gym
Make a Halloween Parade. Have the students have pictures or masks of pumpkins, ghosts,
witches or a cat with face, body and tail. You can say, “OK witches you will be at the
beginning of our parade, ghosts you are in the middle and pumpkins you are at the end.”
You can be silly with the cat you can say, “Ok what goes at the beginning of the cat, the
tail?” Have a student (perhaps the leader) say where the parts go. March around in your
parade then switch.
Lesson Plan for Vocabulary Development
Kindergarten
Theme – Fairy Tales
Vocabulary Concepts – pretend/true/lie/false
Demonstrate Truth and Lies
Say silly things like, “I am a dog.” “I eat chairs.” Have students say if its true or not and
then have them fix it so that it is true. Talk about how its ok to pretend when everyone
knows you are pretending but its not OK to lie when people are serious.
Answering Wh Questions Receptive and Expressive Language (Story)
Read a story such as The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood or Chicken Little. Ask
lots of comprehension questions during the story:
Where is Red Riding Hood going? What is in the basket? Why is she taking food to her
grandma? Who did she see in the woods? How did the wolf fool RRH? Etc.
You may want to use pictures from board maker to signify (what, where, when, why, who,
and how). If you pre teach these they may help the children know how to answer the
questions and certainly they can be used later in show and share to help students formulate
their own questions.
After the story is done give some examples of things characters said and ask if they were
true or not.
Sound-Grapheme-Action Matching & Rhyming
Tell the students that you might try to trick them like the big bad wolf. If you have actions
or gestures to match your sounds do an action and then say the wrong sound. This sound
says ssssss. Have students label your sound-action true or false. If you do not have actions
you can hold up a letter and say, “This letter says b.”
Hold up students’ name cards with an alternate letter at the beginnings (you can use sticky
tack for this) and say, “We have a person in our class named “bason”. Is that true? No!
What could I say that is true? We have a person in our class named – Jason!
Fine Motor & Expressive Language
Have the students draw a picture of something (you might want to choose a category – food,
animal, TV Show, game, etc.) they like and something they don’t like. Then go around and
label their pictures. Have each student hold up their picture and say, “Jimmy likes broccoli
Jimmy likes ice cream.” Ask students which one they think is true.
Listening Following Directions (Auditory Comprehension) Gym
Have students hold balls (good luck with this). You say something and if it is true students
can bounce the ball. If its not true they can shake their fingers at you. Some statements
include; Birds fly. We eat spiders. We sleep in the water. We have two eyes. We have two
noses.