Vocabulary+development

Vocabulary Activities:
On-line dictionary sources:

Dictionary.com: []

Wordsmyth: []

Try using any of these sites with your students. (Please post any products.)

Wordle: [] (Scroll down on this page to see a sample wordle.)

Wordnik: []

Wordia: []

__Vocabulary from The Circuit__ Directions: As you find these words in the text, record the page number and the sentence that uses the word. Using the context, predict the meaning of the word. Then look it up in a dictionary and record the definition. barren barricade distinct timid cultivate sharecropper apologetic feign emerge suffocate exhausted fragile makeshift accompany dignity dilapidated vineyard caravan weary furrow tragic sluggish scorch pastime kerosene

Part II: Sort the words into separate categories by parts of speech (put all the nouns in one list, adjectives in another list, verbs in a third list, adverbs in the fourth list). Bonus: includes various forms of words that have them.

Below is a sample wordle made from www.wordle.net:

__ SIMILES AND METAPHORS IN THE CIRCUIT __

· The train looked like metal huts on wheels string together. (p. 2-3)

· We all crawled through like snakes. (p. 5)

· I climbed on the roof of the Carcachita again and watched them disappear into the sea of cotton. (p. 11)

· Her head turned left and right a hundred times a second and her index finger moved from side to side as fast as a windshield wiper on a rainy day. (p. 20)

· The whole class, like a swarm of bees, rushed over to the counter. (p. 25)

· The different shapes and colors made the floor look like a quilt. (p. 30)

· He looked like a kangaroo. (p. 62)

· Leaning on the horn, and trying to avoid the potholes full of water, he drove up and down the muddy paths, slow as a snail, between rows and rows of perfectly aligned one-room cabins.(p.66)

· On days when I was not in school, the honking of the horn was for me like the final bell on the last day of school. (p. 66)

· “Cotton bolls are like roses. They are pretty but they can hurt you.” (p. 67)

· “Yes, I know; the shell is like a cat’s claw,” (p. 67)

· He listened to the motor, tilting his head from side to side like a parrot, trying to detect any noises that spelled car trouble. (p. 75)

· The dirt floor, populated by earthworms, looked like a gray road map. (p. 77)

· The fog covered the valley every morning, like a large-gray sheet. (p. 87)

· We could see it through the wall of fog, not far from where we parked. (p. 87)

· Screaming with joy, Manuelito and my brothers jumped up and down like grasshoppers. (p. 94)

· The rug under my feet felt like a sack full of cotton. (p. 100)