Foreign Language Word of the Day

Vocabulary development is an important part of the elementary school curriculum. Many new words are naturally accumulated throughout the course of the day by reading books, listening to the teacher talk, and even spelling tests. But another way to grow your students' vocabulary is through explicitly introducing one new word per day and then holding them accountable for remembering the words over time. Why not take this concept one step further and add a foreign language component to your daily vocabulary activities? You could choose to focus on one language all year long, or consider changing it up with a new foreign language every 2-3 months. Do a quick language survey of the languages your students speak at home and enlist their help in formulating a word list. You could even experiment with having a student lead the activity. This would be a great enrichment activity for students who require additional challenges in school To reinforce each new word, pull from the following ideas for students' independent practice:

• Write a sentence in English, substituting the new foreign language word
• Illustrate the new word
• Make flashcards of the words of the day for cumulative practice
• Sort the words of the day by parts of speech (i.e. noun, verb, adjective, etc.)
• Younger students can sort the words by number of letters, number of vowels or consonants, etc.
• Create a chart translating each English word into the other foreign languages