Word Wall

Our 4th Grade Data Team is currently working on helping our students develop their vocabulary skills, especially finding meaning within the context of the text they are reading.  One of the changes I have made in my room to help facilitate this development for my students is with a new word wall.  We have weekly vocabulary lists and do a word of the day, but the kids have not been USING the words we've been studying.  Hopefully the portability of this new word wall will encourage them to use the new words in their writing too.

I got this idea from Pinterest and am so excited about it!  I love the new pop of color it added to the room and I know the kids are going to love it too!  Each letter has a book ring on a hook and all new words are added behind the letter (in alphabetical order).  The book rings let us add and change words as often as we like and kids can take the letter's ring to their desk to use the word in their writing. 

The word cards include the word on one side with the part of speech, definition, and an example sentence on the other.  One of our class jobs is Word Wizard and that individual makes the new card each day for our word of the day.  They share the sentence and introduce the word before putting the new word onto its ring.  Of course, I also have a pocket of notecards punched and ready to go for whenever students find a great word that needs to be shared - they'll just have to look up the word's part of speech and definition in order to share the word!  Great practice for everyone!

If you'd like to try this and like the letters I used - I'm happy to share!  I printed them four on a sheet and laminated them before hanging.