Evan Moor Educational Publishers A Word a Day Grade 1

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

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

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