Give each student a blank notebook with tabbed sections for each letter of the alphabet. When students come across an unfamiliar word, have them write the word in their notebook dictionary in the appropriate section. Have them look up the word in a dictionary, and then write its meaning in their own words. Younger children may draw a picture. For example, if the class is reading the book, "Charlotte's Web," they will encounter the word "glutton." A written definition of the word should explain that a glutton is a person who eats too much, while a drawing of a glutton might be a person with a very large plate of food.
Set aside wall space to hang a large poster with the title, "Wonder Words" on it. Give each student a few index cards. Each time a student encounters a new word, have him write it on a card and attach it to the poster. Set aside some time each day to have a class discussion on the new words. For example, when reading "Prince Caspian," some words with which students may be unfamiliar are "cantrips," deceptive moves or tricks; "seneschal," an officer in a medieval house; and "bivouac," a temporary military camp.
Teach students the parts of each word. Have them identity the root or base, such as "happy" in "happiness"; a prefix, such as "anti-", "dis-" or "sub-"; and a suffix, such as "-est," "-full" and "-ness." Understanding these parts will help them understand similar words when they come across them in later reading. Older children can also learn foreign language roots of various words -- for example, they can learn that "government," "literature" and "adventure" are from the French language, while "history," "atmosphere" and "skeleton" are from Greek; and "anatomy," "excavate" and "peninsula" are derived from Latin.
Create a semantic map of each vocabulary word. In the center of the board or on a large sheet of paper, write the vocabulary word in a box. Draw five lines coming from the center box, like the spokes of a wheel. At the end of each line, draw another large box. Label these boxes with the words "definition," "illustration," "synonym," "antonym" and "use it in a sentence." Have the students brainstorm the answers that go in each box. Write the responses in the appropriate spots. For example, if the word is "despair," a definition may be "hopelessness"; a synonym might be "depression"; an antonym might be "joy"; an illustration might be a person crying over a test with a poor grade on it; and a sentence might read, "she felt great despair because she failed another math test."
Divide the class into groups. Assign each group a portion of the vocabulary words. Have each group act out the words, or draw them on the board for the other teams to guess. Do not allow them to say or write the actual word. Decide ahead of time whether to allow "opposites" or "sounds like" clues. For example, if the class is studying "A Christmas Carol," they will learn the word "cogitate." They may draw or act out a person thinking hard, for instance, drawing thought bubbles above a figure's head or closing their eyes and tapping their head to exaggerate the process of thinking.
Make crossword puzzles, using the definitions as the clues. Alternately, make word searches, but instead of listing the words to find, list definitions or opposites and have students figure out the list based on the vocabulary words before completing the puzzle. See the Resources section for websites that generate puzzles based on user-designated word lists.