I looked at the Wordsmart site. It looks like it is for older students. Do you know of anything for upper grade school?
THanks
Re: Wordsmart
I am finding I like the Wordly Wise workbooks for my 6th grader. We did Megawords the first semester but I felt it tackled too many concepts-prefixes, suffixes, spelling, word meaning. Worldly Wise seems to concentrate more on just vocabulary and the exercises are short and concise
I also picked up Vocabulary Cartoons(I went to a damaged book sale for Rainbow Resource-I got all sorts of things)
I havent tried it yet, but I dont think ds is ready.
For example, the word ‘harsh’ is illustrated with a cartoon showing a frog shaking in fear in the middle of a marsh(monster eyes all around) The idea is to tie ‘harsh’ in to ‘marsh’ but I know my son doesnt know ‘marsh’ to begin with
Maybe down the road…….
Heres that site
http://www.vocabularycartoons.com/
And Worldly Wise is available through several places
http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/series.asp?seriesonly=2431M
Volume A of WordSmart is described as very challenging for the average 4th grade student, but suitable for 4th grade and up. Volumbe B is described as very challenging for the average 5th grade student. Volumes C, D, E, F are the ones sold as preparation for the SAT. From what I have seen these are pretty accurate guidelines, so Volume A should certainly be suitable for upper elementary grades.
The website is awful, but if you can find the “Choose a Volume” icon and click on it, you will find the above descriptions.
Actually, I happen to have the Volume A pamphlet handy here. “Word Adventure 2K1 is the specialized introduction to the ….. WordSmart series.”…..”Word Adventure is a special adaptation of Volume A with improved graphics and simplified interface so that any reading child can comfortably use it on their own.” From what I can tell, Word Adventure is the newest version of Volume A, changed to make it more appealing to the younger crowd.
Here are some of the words listed for Volume A: crooked, private, fragrant, withdraw, quench, awkwardly, point, banish, venture, agreement, revival, sovereign, stain, trifle, twirl, transfer, replace, impertinent, explain. There are 200 root words in total for Volume A.
Critical Thinking Press has two computer CD programs that work on Latin and Greek roots. I have seen mixed reviews of these. Some children like them and some find them boring. Website is http://www.criticalthinking.com . These would also certainly work on vocabulary development. I don’t know if all of the word parts are spoken, though.
Nancy