Teaching Vocabulary with WordBuild {TOS Crew Review}

Recently as part of the TOS Review Crew we received a new vocabulary curriculum to try out.  We received the Wordbuild: Foundations, Level 1 from Dynamic Literacy.  If you have ever wondered how to teach vocabulary to your children in your homeschool look no further than WordBuild.  Teaching vocabulary with WordBuild is fun and easy!

We received three physical books with this review, two student books and a teacher’s book.  A few things to know about WordBuild and specifically their Foundations, Level 1 course.  It is geared for grades 2nd-5th or grades 5th-9th for remedial work.  To use this your student should have mastered phonics and be focusing more on spelling and comprehension.

This vocabulary program works not on rote memorization of words, but rather putting words together using known prefixes, suffixes, and root words to build up their vocabulary.  It’s designed to be used for 15 minutes per day so it doesn’t take a long time and definitely shouldn’t over stress your students.  

The Teacher’s book has all you’ll need laid out for you.  The lesson plan is done for you and it contains a full copy of the student book with answers as well.   You also have access to quizzes that can be done to judge progress.  These would be great for doing and keeping in your child’s portfolio for that year.  With the purchase of the teacher’s book you also have access to some online content to add into your lessons.  This is supplemental to the program you have.  

The first student book is called Basics and introduces your child to compound words before transitioning them to suffixes and prefixes.  It’s 20 pages long and full of pictures and fun.

From there you go to the Student Activity book which is 184 pages long.  This contains a good level of variety in lessons to keep your student engaged while still having them follow the same learning path each week with each focus.  You’ll study 30 different prefix/suffix combinations through the course of this book.  But don’t worry if your child finishes this quickly, there are other levels you can advance to!

The lessons are already worked out for a five-day school week.  We tend to do school four or five days a week.  If I knew we were going to be doing school for only four days on a particular week we’d combine two of the days.  They’re simple and quick and when spaced at the beginning and at the end of the day two lessons is not overwhelming.  

Each week your first day is going to be the same.  You’re going to learn your new prefix or suffix and then spend time putting it on the appropriate end of the words.  This makes your compound words and with that you’re learning how to make new words, say new words, and what they mean.  You’re doing this by knowing the root word and learning what your prefix or suffix means and what it adds to the word.  You are in essence building a word!  My kids loved that they had the power to create new words and didn’t always create new words that were actual words.  But that’s just added fun of course!

Each week you’re given a new prefix or suffix to work on.  This way of learning is great.  It’s not overwhelming.  You don’t have 20 different words to memorize per week but rather just one suffix or prefix, how to spell it, and what it does to a word, how to use it correctly.  You’re learning and working with these words through fun games.  These games are magic squares(like a Sudoku game), Affix adders, word search, and so much more!  They change out so you’re not getting bored with one or the other.  You’re going to do some fill in the blank type work as well.  All things that are helping to cement in their minds what that prefix/suffix does to a word and what it means.  You’ll see this information pop up in the weirdest places now and know that they’re learning!  Now Science and Reading are going to be easier as they’ll KNOW what that word means!

Somethings to mention.  This is obviously written with a classroom teaching setting in mind.  It’s not written for one on one.  I have a unique perspective in that I have my own little mini classroom going on with 9 children.  Not all of my kids are in the appropriate age range for this.  But, all of my kids did listen and learn when I was working with the two students that are.  All you need to use with additional children is buy additional student books.  I can see how this would work wonderfully with a classroom of children.  It does work with just one child as well.  I had a unique mix of one child actually doing the student book and several other children learning and listening as we did some board exercises.

All in all we really liked this.  Because of the very thorough phonics program we use, the beginnings of this course were a repeat of what we have already done and learned.  They went by very quickly and if I had let my oldest she could have just gone through the first 5 lessons in one week.  She is an avid reader and has picked up a lot of words and knowledge just by reading.  She reads above her grade level and would be reading constantly if we let her.  She really enjoyed learning through this course and I think she will be continuing in the next books as well.

You can learn more about WordBuild by following them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  Also make sure to check out the Main TOS Blog for more on WordBuild.  Reviewers had a few choices for this review so you can check out the other products as well!