It's VOCABULARY day my math friends!

I don't know about you but I'm always looking for ways to strengthen my students' math vocabulary. I thought I would share some of my favorite ideas and resources with you today:

• A word wall can be a wonderful tool, but it doesn't reach its potential if it's not an active wall. The Granite School District in Utah has a great one page flyer of ideas that are fun and easy to implement in your classroom to reinforce your vocabulary and bring your word wall to life.
• I'm sure that I have shared my Frayer square worksheet before, but it remains one of my favorites.
• The Virginia Department of Education has released some great Word Wall Cards that are really helpful in illustrating vocabulary concepts.
• The Discovery Education Puzzlemaker remains my favorite word puzzle creation software. Word searches make students repeat the words in their head while they search, it's great for repetition. Word scrambles are a wonderful way to practice spelling because students will pay special attention to the letters used to make vocabulary words. And cross word puzzles help students practice connecting definitions to vocabulary words. Word puzzles are not busy work!
• The website A-Z worksheets.com has a great printable math glossary if you need one but I have started letting my students use apps and internet on their phones to look up words with great success.

I hope these ideas help you out. My feeling is that precise vocabulary is the difference between understanding math and being afraid of it! Go do math!