Making Free Vocabulary Puzzles

Older toad is a great reader when it comes to decoding the language but understanding what he's reading a bit less.  If he reads aloud to you, you'd never know he doesn't know the meaning of lots of what he's reading if you didn't press him, since his pronunciation is so spot on.  He also has very little patience with worksheets and limited handwriting tolerance so what's a gal to do to help him build his vocabulary?

I started making vocabulary puzzles with illustrations from the books we read.   We've done both his readers, audio books we listen to, and read aloud books - any that have a lot of words he doesn't know.

We finished up our year with The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron.  It was a big hit and I'm sure we'll be doing the sequel next.



This is a picture of a completed puzzle.

All you need to do is xerox an illustration from the book you're reading.  It may require enlarging to fill a piece of paper.  I use 60 lb card stock so the pieces are heavier duty but regular would work too.  Then I cut the picture up.  I have no shapes or number of pieces in mind, just abstract cutting.  Then I write our vocabulary words on the front of the pieces.  I use a contrasting color to help it show up.

Then, older toad puts the puzzle together on the table.  He reads the words when he's putting it together.  Sometimes he flips it over to read the definition on the back.  When the pieces are all assembled, we put it on clear contact paper so it stays together.  I always help with this part.  The alignment ends up better as well as I make sure all the words and definitions get read as we put it together.  Here's a completed puzzle back.