Word Smart is what a lot of people think “being smart” is, but it’s only one of eight multiple intelligences we’ve been looking at in class this term.
In this post, we share some of our Word Smart work, and there’s also a list of Word Smart activities to try at home.
Writing
We do a Big Writing in class every Tuesday. I asked the children to take some of their favourite sentences and write them out. Here are a few examples:
Telling Jokes
We use our Word Smart skills when we tell jokes, here are a few from our students:
Reading
As well as our reading groups, class novels and buddy reading, we also listen to audiobooks on the Libby app.
Tongue Twisters
We’ve been using tongue twisters to warm up for our show practice lately, they’re another great way to work those Word Smarts:
Publishing
Finally, we have to plug our annual short story collection, Fishie Stories. The first edition came out in 2023 and we have 2024’s book in the works already…
How to develop Word Smarts
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Read a book, magazine, graphic novel, comic, or the ingredients on food!
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Write a journal – you can start with 5 mins or 50 words a day. Build up a streak of writing and see how many words you can do in a week, month or term of school!
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Listen to audiobooks
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Watch movies
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Look up words in a dictionary (online, or a physical book)
- Make up stories – alone or with friends – tell them, write them or draw them as comic strips
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Play Word Games – try Scattegories, Mad Libs, Scrabble and Bananagrams
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Collect tongue twisters, jokes, riddles, puns, rhymes, long words and strange words
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Write a letter or email to your favourite author
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Learn another language on DUOLINGO
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Go to a play
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Make up a play or puppet show
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Debate about things (not argue!)
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Read Shel Silverstein (poems)
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Learn how to sing your favourite songs
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Learn how to rap your favourite raps
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Get a magnetic word kit and write notes on your fridge
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Read outside in the summer
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Play Dungeons and Dragons or other role playing games like: Dragonwood, Mice & Mystics or Hero Kids
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Write myths to explain the world around us
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Write and put on comedy skits with your friends
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Write letters, notes and emails to friends and family
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Listen to the radio and radio plays
Learn about the other smarts using these links
Word Smart | Music Smart | Body Smart | Nature Smart | Self Smart | Picture Smart | People Smart | Number/Logic Smart
