Using Book Reading, Games, and Music to Teach Vocabulary to Preschool Children from Low-Income Homes: Research and Methods
Vocabulary lessons can be much more than just spelling tests and writing assignments. There are lots of day to day activities that can be used to help improve a child’s vocabulary, such as books, games, and music. These are cheap and easy ways that you can engage a child with new vocabulary. Plus, they can also be fun and exciting ways to learn.
How Can Books, Games, and Music be Used for Vocabulary?
Words are all around us, so the more words we become exposed to, the more our vocabulary will improve. This is especially true for young children. Vocabulary is not just something that can be taught through spelling and reading assignments, but it is also something that can be gained from everyday items such as books, music, and even games.
An effective way to build a child’s vocabulary is to read aloud to them and to encourage them to read out loud as well. These can be with any books, not just educational ones. Find a book or story that your child is interested in and read it with them. If they enjoy reading fun stories and they do it often, they will be learning lots of new vocabulary just by sounding out new words and gaining extra reading experience. Plus, you can access plenty of free books at the library, so there is no need to spend extra money on this learning process.
Music can also work similarly to reading books. By encouraging kids to sing songs and listen to music, they can learn new words as a result. Even if a kid does not aspire to be a musician or have any talents musically, music is all around us, so using it as a learning tool should be no problem. Plus, there are actually ways that music can be used in the classroom to improve vocabulary and other language arts skills. Teachers and parents can use songs that are related to certain topics or that have certain words to help children learn.
Children can also learn vocabulary from playing games. Games involve communication with peers along with new words and phrases that children can learn. Teachers and parents can use games to make learning vocabulary more fun and engaging. Simple lessons can be turned into fun competitions that kids will benefit from.
Are These Effective Ways to Help Kids?
Learning new vocabulary doesn’t have to be annoying to children that aren’t interested in reading or writing. Therefore, using books, games, and music to learn vocabulary can be a much more effective approach. These are all cheap and fun ways for children to learn vocabulary at a young age, so these methods should be encouraged and used more regularly both at home and in school.
Conclusion
Vocabulary is a skill that kids need to start learning at a young age so that they can continue to improve it as they grow older. By adding fun elements to vocabulary, preschool children will feel more encouraged to work hard to learn new words and skills. Come up with activities using games, books, and music to help your child grow to have a strong vocabulary for no additional costs.