What is the book focused on?

The Nacho Recortables series focuses mainly on introductions of vocabulary through high visualization activities. This book is ideal for native and non-native speakers who want to expand their vocabulary and do it in a fun way! All vocabulary lists provided in the book are relational and of great daily use. This series is structured in an efficient format so that your children or students can easily learn new vocabulary words. For example, the vocabulary lists presents topics with a title, has pictures for each vocabulary word, and the name of each object in the picture. What makes this book interactive is the ability to cut out the vocabulary images and do more activities with your child or your students!

Tips on improving vocabulary skills with your children or students

Memorization ("skill and exercise") is not very helpful when it comes to learning new vocabulary. Students learn best from explicit instruction that uses easy-to-understand definitions, interactive activities, and repeated exposure. Teaching in this way will help students understand how words are used in real life contexts and that words can have different meanings depending on how they are used.

• Before starting a class, choose the words to teach. For weekly vocabulary instruction, work with your children or students to choose three to five new words per week. Select the words students will use or see most often, or words related to other words they know.
• Think of definitions that students can easily grasp. Find resources which you can consult to find a definition for each word. The definition should be easy to understand, written in everyday language, and capture common use of the word. Your definitions can include images, videos, or other multimedia options

Activities you can try!

• Memory Movement: Assign each student a vocabulary term. They must create a physical movement to represent the definition. For example, "car" can be represented by moving your hands as if you were driving. Once the student has created their movement, they must walk around the room teaching their term to other students. With each new term a student learns, they need to perform the memory move that was created by their peers. This activity can also be done with just one student, if you want to do it at home with your children.
• Find It First Game: Post the vocabulary pictures on a wall or blackboard. Then call two students to the wall. Say the definition of a word; students will have to find it first before the other student. The student who does it first wins!

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Activities Inspired by Minds in Bloom and Chery Lyon on Understood

Written by: Valeria Flores. University of California Los Angeles. Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Linguistics. Bilingual teacher.