I have recently presented a teacher training, Building Academic Vocabulary in the Science Classroom, with Lisa Walsh and we shared different vocabulary techniques with fellow educators of all levels. We also learned from each other. She shared a technique called Picture Vocabulary. I love kinesthetic activities and was excited to try this activity. If you’re an educator, you’ve probably completed some form of this activity. A great resource for activities like this is The Science Toolkit. I printed the definitions, labels and organs.
For the first activity, students are given either a term or definition when they arrive. Once everyone is ready, they find their match. Depending on grade level, the more alike the definitions can be, the more challenging. Wording can really be helpful in differentiation and challenge level. Once everyone found their match (or thought they had), I then lead the reading and sharing of the definitions aloud. As you see in the photo above, this vocabulary activity was based on the Digestive System. To start the discussion of terms, I started at the mouth and traveled down the system.
Second, each table group of 4-8 received 2-3 organs from the Digestive System. Using our vocabulary, we then built the system. I had a body outline file I used with a past activity, Tour of the Body Systems. I’ve had some Velcro for years. I decided to take the body outline and add the organs with Velcro so I can use it over and over. Of course, I laminated all the organs and vocabulary terms. I was really excited about it, but I had not ever tried this before. It was such a success! Here are some action shots!
My students really enjoyed the activity as well as the fact that the system was not to scale with the outline! We had lots of laughs. We also discussed the limitations of models. Several told me they enjoyed the lesson and liked “learning this way.”
The Sunny Side Of Education 