This one is courtesy of Jonathon Lloyd Artistic Director of Polka Theatre. Start your sessions by asking the class what The Word of the Day should be – if all suggestions are already known by the majority of the class you could get a child to randomly select a word from the dictionary! Having the word come from the children fosters a sense of ownership of the word and will hopefully lead to the situation Jonathon has experienced where children come to class having discovered a word outside of school that they wish to be used as “The Word of the Day” The more excitement around the word the better and it does not have to be an adjective, nouns can make brilliant excuses for creating metaphors and similes throughout the day.
Try to find ways of sprinkling that word throughout the days activities. For instance a “tantalising” day may involve presenting everything created in as beautiful a way as possible to make it “tantalising”. A Tyranosaurus Rex day may involve being “as brave as a Tyranosaurus Rex” when reading aloud in class. The word becomes a theme for that days activities and you should look for as many opportunities as possible to use the word and to spell the word out both on the board and verbally with the class. House points or equivalent can be offered to those children who can successfully use the word in a sentence or (radical idea coming up) include the word in their work! By the end of the day your class should be able to confidently use and spell their new word. If you can establish this as a daily routine you are looking at actively increasing the class’s vocabulary by five words a week! As well as encouraging a love for and excitement around words.