{"id":6958,"date":"2016-02-16T14:01:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T14:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"\/blogs\/?p=6958"},"modified":"2017-01-23T09:28:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T09:28:44","slug":"fun-games-and-activities-to-learn-how-to-use-a-dictionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blogs\/fun-games-and-activities-to-learn-how-to-use-a-dictionary.html","title":{"rendered":"Fun Games and Activities to Learn How to Use a Dictionary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adults might think that poring over a dictionary wouldn\u2019t be the most fun way to spend an afternoon, but many kids find dictionaries to be fascinating. <\/span>Dictionaries contain an abundance of information about words, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Definitions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Origins<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The part of speech the word is<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to make it plural<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How to use the word properly<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And more.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Kids can spend many happy hours looking up words they know \u2014 or don\u2019t know \u2014 and learning about them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Getting Started<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But before they can do that, you need to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/Teach-Children-to-Use-a-Dictionary\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">teach them<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> how to use a dictionary. While it may seem intuitive to us as adults, dictionaries are anything but self-explanatory to a kid.  <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start by buying your kids a children\u2019s dictionary. There are several great ones on the market. Here\u2019s what to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxfordowl.co.uk\/for-home\/reading-owl\/expert-help\/choosing-dictionaries\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">look for<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a children\u2019s dictionary:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Large, easy to read print<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Definitions in simple language<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pictures and illustrations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Examples of word usage children can relate to.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Mastering Alphabetical Order<a href=\"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/images.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-6963 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/images.jpeg\" alt=\"animals surrounding a dictionary\" width=\"267\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.turtlediary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/images.jpeg 267w, https:\/\/wp.turtlediary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/images-150x106.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To use the dictionary, your child will need to understand alphabetical order.  So before you begin playing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/game\/how-to-use-a-dictionary.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dictionary games<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, practice putting words in alphabetical order:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Give your child a stack of index cards (maybe ten) and have them write the names of objects they find around the house. Then have them put the cards in alphabetical order.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most kids quickly catch on to putting words in order based on the first letter, but adding additional letters is a bit trickier, so try this activity next:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Give your child a stack of index cards and ask them to write down as many words beginning with \u2018A\u2019 as they can. Then have them put these words in alphabetical order.  To do so, they will have to consider the second, third and maybe even fourth letters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once they understand alphabetical order, show your child how to use the guide words at the top of each page to find a word within the dictionary. Interactive dictionary games can provide useful practice for this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fun Dictionary Games to Play<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now you\u2019re ready to play a dictionary game with your child. Here are a few fun dictionary games:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Speedy Word Search:<\/strong><b><b>  <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give the kids a list of words to look up in the dictionary. Then see how many of these they can find in three minutes. Have them write down page numbers to show where they found the words.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><strong>Mystery Word Hunt:<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ahead of time, write a series of clues to help your child zero in on a specific word. For instance, clues for the word \u2018parrot \u2018might be: 1) Comes between \u2018parlor\u2019 and \u2018parsnip\u2019, 2) has two syllables, 3) is a colorful animal.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Crack the Dictionary Code:<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think of a phrase. Assign a number to each letter in the phrase, then write out the phrase in numbers. These will be page numbers in the dictionary. Find a word on each of the pages and write them down in order.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To play, give your child the list of words in order \u2014 and the key to the numbers. They are to find the words, and note the page number, then crack the code to spell the phrase you chose. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These can also be fun games for a birthday or other holiday party. Customize the words you choose to fit the occasion!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adults might think that poring over a dictionary wouldn\u2019t be the most fun way to spend an afternoon, but many kids find dictionaries to be fascinating. Dictionaries contain an abundance of information about words, including: Definitions Origins The part of speech the word is How to make it plural How to use the word properly&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,103,118],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp.turtlediary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/download-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6958"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7009,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958\/revisions\/7009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlediary.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}