Collecting Beautiful Words

 

James Patterson’s collection of big (fun to say) words from A to Z is a blast for little ones to listen to (and engage with the illustrations) and it also is fantastic pronunciation practice for elementary/middle school students and a *perfect* book for teaching a mini-lesson on collecting beautiful words that are rich in meaning!

If you don't currently have a word wall in your middle school classroom, I highly suggest starting one. If you don't have space for it, at least make sure that your students are utilizing a few pages of a notebook (preferably a writer's notebook) to collect their own set of beautiful, interesting, inspiring, and curious words.

Word walls/word collectors can be used for SO MANY THINGS. For example, ask your students to write a short story that includes a few of the words they have collected. Consider using the words for a personalized spelling test. Analyze each word's part of speech. Give your students time to look up what the words they have collected mean. Have them record in creative illustrations the meaning of the word. The possibilities are truly endless. Most students will need reminders to keep their eyes peeled for words to collect. I like to add a word daily to my word collector and I share it with my students so they remember to keep an eye out for their favorite word of the day!