A Word a Day, Grade 1 Teacher Edition

I have a crow puppet (word bird) that I use to introduce a new word a day. They love the vocab introduction.

Wish I would've bought this sooner for my Kindergartner!This book is for 1st Graders but honestly most kinders could grasp or would've have heard of plenty of the words in the book already, they might just not have understood what they really meant. Example: I asked my daughter, "when you 'crunch' something, what are you doing?". Her response was, "you crunch a potato chip" which is a good example but she didn't know exactly what the word meant, now she does!Kids pickup so many words from everyday conversations but often times they are clueless as to the words true definition & this series of books is an excellent tool to teach them with! They don't have to use them in everyday conversations themselves yet, but just knowing what adults are actually saying helps their cognitive growth & will help when it comes to writing because they will have more words under their belt!Now these are truly elementary definitions for this specific age range & if you'd prefer to have your child know the full range of the word Crunch, then I would recommend a good children's dictionary or you can even add on to the definition yourself. Simple vocabulary building is just the ticket for young minds & this series fits the bill! I would highly recommend to any parent!

I had high hopes for this book, and for  A Word a Day, Grade 2 , which I also bought for my homeschooled 7-year-old first grader. I couldn't have been more disappointed. The vast majority of these so-called "vocabulary" words are words I find it difficult to believe most first-graders wouldn't already know. Most of them are not even difficult to SPELL, although there are a few good spelling words, so the option of using this book as an expensive sort of spelling list is not completely out of the question, I suppose.We don't have television, and reading is a popular pasttime in our home. I have been reading to my daughter since birth, and by age 2.5, she would sit happily for hours and listen to chapter books (namely,  The Complete Little House Nine-Book Set ) with few if any pictures. At seven, she's not much of an independent reader (she CAN read, she just prefers to be read TO, which I'm happy to do). My point is, she does have a fairly good vocabulary already, and I know that is a variable among children, obviously.Because of this, I am providing a list of the words included in this book (if I had seen the complete list, I wouldn't have wasted my time and money). So here goes, and I have starred the words my 7-yr-old first grader could not define or use correctly in a sentence (there are about FOUR of them):abdomen, aim, ample, appreciate, bashful, befuddle, boast, breeze, bustle, busybody*, chatter, chum*, clever, cluster, cluttered, collection, complete, cooperative, create, creep, crunch, damp, dangle, daring, dash, dazzle, deed, demonstrate, dime, direct, discuss, dismiss, dodge, drench, drowsy, dull, dueling, entrance, equipment, explore, famous, favor, festive, fetch, file, firm, flabbergasted, flutter, focus, frisky, fuss, garment, gentle, giggle, glance, glitter, gloomy, gnaw, grateful, grouchy, handy, harbor, hero, hoarse, hobby, horrible, hush, intense, interest, jabber, jealous, jolly, jumbo*, lack, merry, method, mighty, mystery, nature, nibble, nimble, nutritious, object, occur, odd, odor, panic, pantomime*, patient, pause, peer, peppy, permit, pest, pity, pokey, popular, prance, perfect, present, question, racket, react, reduce, regret, ridiculous, rustle, sample, scamper, scowl, screech, scrub, selfish, sensible, shiver, skill, slumber, snicker, sniff, snoop, score, speak, splendid, strange, stroll, swift, sympathic, tally, tame, task, texture, thoughtful, thrill, tour, vehicle, victory, voyage, wander, wavy, wealthy, wiggle, wind, yelp, zipSeriously? BREEZE? WIND? ZIP? GENTLE? NIBBLE? SCRUB? SNIFF? These are words that first graders are not supposed to already know?! All I can say is: "WTF is happening in the public schools if these are considered challenge words for 6-and-7-year-olds?!" Enough about that. Now for the format of the book, which I was also disappointed with:Each week you get four words, a review "plan" and a quiz, taking up four pages in the book. The first two pages for each week have two words each, and the third page is a review "plan" for an oral review session, and the last page is a review quiz for the week's words.On the word pages, the word is printed at top left, with part of speech and simple definition below it. To the right of that, the word is used in a sentence. Beneath this, there are two or three questions designed to help "firm up" the meaning of the word. An example is: "Which foods can you CRUNCH?" and the choices are: "peas, an apple, milk, a carrot, popcorn". Another example is: "Do you ever DASH? Tell about times when you DASH. Show how to DASH across the room." Or: "If you have been on a plane, tell what it was like to SOAR above the clouds." You get the idea.On the Review plan, it lists the four weekly words again, then gives four little mini-lessons. The format for these is always the same:1.) "Tell students you are going to give them a clue about one of the words for the week. They are to find the word that answers the clue." Then there is a clue for each of the words: "This word describes a person who has many friends. (popular)" [There is one clue for each word from that week.]2.) "Read each sentence and ask students to supply the correct word to complete the sentence." Example: "My baby sister gets _______ if she doesn't take her nap. (grouchy)". [There is one of these for each word.]3.) "Read each sentence and ask students to tell which word is wrong. Then have them provide the correct word from the week's list." Example: "The wind blew a ball of dust into my eye. (ball/speck)" [There is one of these for each word.]4.) "Read each sentence and ask students to decide if it is true or false. If the sentence is false, ask students to explain why." Example: "When you PANIC, you calmly decide what to do. (false, you are so scared that you don't know what to do.)" Another example: "It is fun to learn about things you have an INTEREST in. (true)" [There is one of these for each word.]Each week there is also a review "quiz" (reproduceable) that has the four weekly words at the top, four multiple choice questions (one for each word) and one writing question (Example: "Write about someone you appreciate. Use the word APPRECIATE in your sentence.") Two lines are given for the writing section. The text is somewhat larger on these quiz pages than on the pages that are just for instructor use. An example of a multiple choice question is: "Which are NUTRITIOUS? a) good books, b) your favorite toys, c) healthy foods, d) colorful shirts".Perhaps this would be a good book for a public school teacher of first graders - I really don't know and I can't speak to that (although I can say that if my child was in public school and these were her vocabulary words, I would be disgusted at their simplicity). Maybe if they were kindergarten words they would seem adequate.For our homeschooling environment, this book turned out to be wholely unnecessary. Not only I can think of better words myself (by "better", I mean more tailored to my own child's abilities), but we really don't need this kind of (dare I say it?) boring, repetetive structure. I was hoping the book(s) would have a VARIETY of activities - not be the same exact thing week after week after week. One of the reasons I chose to homeschool was so that my child wouldn't HAVE to do the same dull, repetetive activities (worksheets, quizzes) time after time after time, until all love of learning was systematically quashed out of her.I don't know if I will return them or try to use them for a source of spelling words, adapt them for writing prompts, or something else (kindling?), but I don't think I'll be using as intended, in any case. Your mileage may vary.

Highly recommended! One word a day, not too little not too much for my 5yro, and she loves it. ❤

I first was introduced to this series while teaching fourth grade and loved it! My students loved it as well and were so excited when they were able to use one of our words in their own writing. Now that I am homeschooling, I chose this as a supplement to our word study and both my preschooler and first grader enjoy participating! We are looking forward to each level as we get there.

I really loved this workbook but the level of reading ability is to high for 1st grade. The first grade book is about second grade level and the second grade book which I also bought is about third grade.

its good...

It's very useful for my daughter

This book is by the educational publishers Evan-Moor, who produce really excellent educational workbooks. This one has the aim of improving vocabulary, by giving your child four words a week to learn, with a lesson at the end of the week to make sure they understand the meanings. I was unable to find a British produced book which did the same job for this age group (Grade 1 is for approx the 6-7 year old age group, or Year 2 in our school system).Four new words are presented each week, with a definition, example sentence and what type of word it is listed. So, for example, the word 'focus' is described as a verb, the definition is, "you focus when you pay attention" and there is then a sentence using the word with some questions to ask, such as, "what makes it difficult for you to focus?" The review on the fifth day uses that weeks words - nature, wild, nibble and focus with activities, such as putting the correct word into the correct sentence and statements using the words and whether they are true or false. There are 144 words in this particular book to help increase vocabulary and aid children's story writing and spelling. The whole activity takes about five minutes, easily done in the car before going into school or before homework. You could also extend it by making them learn the spellings. This brings me onto the only negative part of the book - the spellings are obviously American. There are not many words that have to be changed, but you do have to check spellings and change the odd one to the British spelling. I don't find it a major issue, but it is something to be aware of.Overall, though, I think this is an excellent buy and a really good way to expand the words children use in their speech and writing. There are many, many books published by Evan-Moor and they are good value for money and well presented. I have found them very useful to plug gaps in books available here, although it would be nice if there were British editions.

Ok