Read several examples of good word choice. For example, select a child's story that has both interesting words and is phrased so the ideas are very clear. While you read, have students write words from the story that they think are good choices for the sentences in which they appear. Ask students to discuss why they were good choices. As students mention words, write them on the board.
Explain to the students how one word is better than another. Explain that the word "bad" can be replaced by words like "naughty," "crafty," or "unkind" to give a better mental image of the word in context. Give examples of sentences, such as "the boy was bad" versus "the boy was naughty and unkind" to show the way the words expand the meaning of the sentence.
Add words from the story that you want students to learn. Discuss these words and have students copy the list into their notebooks. Ask which words are better for a sentence and then ask them why they think the words are better. Have them choose words that are stronger, more specific, descriptive, accurate or memorable when compared to other words that could be used in the same place.
Assign the students to look up all the words on the list in a dictionary and write both the meaning of the word and any synonyms they find. Have them use the new vocabulary in writing assignments.
Have the students create a cartoon of the word choices in a small storyboard, with three to five pictures in a comic strip format showing the better word choice for a description of the cartoon character. For example, the first picture might show a house and say "the house is pretty" while the next will say something like "the house is blue with whit trim and window boxes filled with red flowers" to get more descriptive. Tell the students to illustrate the word and write out the word choices that apply to the image.
Assign older students (third or fourth grade) to write ten sentences without repeating a single word. Make sure the students understand that they are not even allowed to write words like "me," "I," "is" or "the" more than once in the ten sentences, but must find alternatives to the words they have already used.