Play vocabulary games in class, such as Bingo Lingo. Bingo Lingo is a spin on the Bingo board game that gives students practice recognizing Latin- and Greek-based root words. Other game ideas include vocabulary matching games, in which students draw a line between the vocabulary word and its definition on a worksheet.
Host a spelling bee to give your students practice spelling the new vocabulary words orally in a contest activity. Students will find it interesting because they will be forced to compete against one another to be the winner.
Get a guest speaker to come into your class for a vocabulary lesson on theme words. For instance, if you are teaching students about human anatomy vocabulary words, you might ask a doctor to come in as a guest and teach the kids the new words. The doctor could bring in a fake human skeleton and educate students on anatomy vocabulary words using the skeleton as a model.
Prepare word puzzle worksheets on which kids can practice their new vocabulary words. Word puzzles, such as word scrambles, crosswords and word searches, give students the chance to become familiar with how the words are spelled and what they mean.
Read stories that contain the new vocabulary words. Students will pick up on the words and become familiar with them the more they read or hear them in context.
Put on a class play using dialogue that is filled with the vocabulary words. For instance, if you are teaching the class about marine vocabulary words, you can write a short skit about two marine biologists getting ready for a dive underwater.
Institute a word-of-the-day idea. Each day, teach the class one new word, which is the word on which the students focus for that day.