It's one thing to teach kids to understand words, quite another to encourage them to love language. Words on the Vine attempts both, demonstrating the origins of English words from their Greek and Latin roots, and providing the means necessary for kids to decode words on their own. 36 weekly units cover a variety of words and supply enough work for an entire school year. Each one focuses on one or two roots and explores derivative words through fun exercises like word searches, matching, and fill-in-the-blank.
The book begins with a master list of all the root forms covered in-depth in the units. Below every word is a list of possible "enrichment activities"for students to pursue further study of each root and some of their more interesting or common uses. Acomplete answer key for all written exercises in the back of the book means teachers won't have to scour the text while grading. The text is black and white with occasional cartoon illustrations for a little added fun.
While this isn't an in-depth vocabulary course, it can make an excellent—and reasonably fun—supplement to vocabulary instruction. Also, by introducing students to the study of etymology (origin and history of words), it makes learning new words fun and encourages excitement rather than dread for exploring the language. Recommended for grades 5-8, this can easily be used with younger students, especially with more adult supervision; older students can complete the projects on their own.
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