When I first began teaching, I had no clue what to teach my students for vocabulary lessons for 2nd grade. Our reading curriculum did have some specific vocabulary words to teach that went with the stories we read. But I noticed those words were not on the tests. The tests had vocabulary skills instead. Things like dictionary skills, multiple meaning words, and words with prefixes and suffixes.

 

I discovered simple ways to teach these vocabulary skills that didn’t take a lot of prep time. I turned them into routines for students. Best part about these routines is that they only take 10 minutes or less as vocabulary lessons for 2nd grade. So let’s dig into how I teach these vocabulary lessons for 2nd grade.

 

Vocabulary Lessons For 2nd Grade

 

Alphabetical Order and Dictionary Skills

 

The common core standard for dictionary skills want students to “use glossaries and beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases.”

In order for students to know how to use a dictionary, they need to know alphabetical order. I make teaching alphabetical order a routine by putting alphabetical order worksheets into a packet. Each day we complete a worksheet as a class.

These are fun worksheets that have a list of words that students then put in alphabetical order. Each list is themed, like animals or foods. This makes it fun for students.

In the beginning, I really support students. Together we underline the first letter of each word. Then I go through the alphabet that is displayed above our whiteboard. I ask students, “Do we have any words that start with A? B? C?” and so on.

After a couple days of doing this together, I get students started on the first couple of words and then have them do the rest by themselves.

To get students working together, I print out cards with words and have small groups work together to put these words in alphabetical order. I love to hear the students talk together and say things like, “Oh let’s put all the words that start with A together and then look at the second letter.” or “This word starts with a C, so that means it needs to be after this B word.”

Find the alphabetical order worksheets and cards I use in my classroom here.

Once students get the hang of alphabetical order, it’s time to show them how alphabetical order can help them look up the meaning to words.

If you are like me, you may not even have dictionaries in your classroom. So we use the glossary in the back of our anthologies that comes with our reading curriculum.

If we are looking up the word “monument,” I ask students what letter the word starts with. It starts with M so we look up and find the M page in the glossary. I point out to students that it is in alphabetical order, so we can find the M page after the L page.

Once we are all on that page, we look at the second letter of the word. The second letter is O. So we go down the page until we find MO and the word monument. Then I call on a student to read the definition to us.

We practice looking up words in our glossaries for a few days until I can see students have mastered this vocabulary standard.

 

Multiple Meaning Words

 

The common core standard for these vocabulary lessons for 2nd grade says, “determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues…”

For lessons on multiple meaning words, I also have a packet. I love using packets because I only have to prep them once and they are ready for multiple lessons. It helps to save me time.

But this isn’t a boring old packet. It has students drawing pictures and writing sentences. Let me explain more.

Each page is over a multiple meaning word. Let’s use the word “bank” as an example. The page is split into two parts. Both with “bank” up at the top since bank has two meanings. Then there is a space for students to write the definition, draw a picture, and write a sentence for both kinds of bank.

I start off the lesson by having students raise their hands and tell me what one type of bank is. A student may say something like, “the building where you put your money.” We all write the definition down and then draw a picture of a bank to go with it. Then I’ll call on another student to give us a sentence with that kind of bank in it. Then we will all write it down.

After that, I ask students the same questions for the other kind of bank. We write down the definition, we draw a picture, and we write a sentence to go with it.

We may do one or two of the pages a day depending on the time we have. After every 4 words, there is a quiz page. With these quiz pages, students have to look at the context from the given sentence and tell what meaning of the word is being used.

This is great to help students to learn how to use context clues. It also helps prepare them for similar test questions. Find the vocabulary worksheets for 2nd graders I use in this packet here.

As we learn these multiple meaning words, I post the ones we have learned up on the wall. I have students draw a picture to go with each meaning. Then when we come across these words in our other reading lessons, we can pause and talk about what meaning is being used.

After teaching all the words in the packet, I have students do a matching activity with a partner. Each group gets a group of cards with words and their meaning. They have to match the meanings with the words. It’s engaging for students and I love to hear them talking about the words with each other.

Find the display words and the matching activity I have my students do here.

Learn more about how I use these resources here in this blog post: The Very Best 2nd Grade Worksheets for Multiple Meaning Words

 

Prefixes and Suffixes

 

For prefixes and suffixes the common core standard says, “Identify and know the meaning of the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes.”

So I help students learn the meaning of common prefixes and suffixes. I give them practice with words with those prefixes and suffixes. Like the other vocabulary lessons for 2nd grade I’ve shared earlier in this blog post, I like doing this with a packet.

This packet has worksheets with each prefix and suffix. Together we write the meaning of the prefix or suffix, we write example words, we pick one of those example words and write the definition of that word, and then we write a sentence with that word.

 

 

I also display a poster with that format up on the wall. That way when we come across a word with that prefix, we can talk about its meaning. It’s really engaging for students. They get so excited when they find a word that has a prefix or suffix that we have learned.

Find these worksheets and posters I use in my classroom here.

Learn more about how I use these prefix and suffix worksheets and posters here in this blog post: How to Teach Prefixes and Suffixes to 2nd Graders

 

Vocabulary Worksheets For 2nd Graders

 

These vocabulary worksheets for 2nd graders that I have shared about today easily help students learn the vocabulary skills they need. They are engaging for students and put words into context. They encourage students to look out for these kinds of words in their own reading. 

My favorite part about these vocabulary worksheets for 2nd graders is that they are low prep for me. I put them in a packet for students. We do one or two pages for our 10 minute vocabulary lesson block and call it a win. Find all of these vocabulary worksheets for 2nd graders in this money saving bundle here.

I hope that you have been able to see how you can easily teach these common core standards for vocabulary to your 2nd grade students. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Follow a routine to take less work off your shoulders and to give students the consistency they need.