Resources to develop confidence in speaking
The younger a child is exposed to rich vocabulary, the more likely they are to develop their own. Our communciation and language collection for the Early Years features a range of themed conversation cards and role play ideas to get children talking. They'll also work well for year 1.
This School uniform debate is a great way to get KS2 children talking! The resource provides prompts and suggestions for children to assume the roles of people of opposite sides of the school uniform debate. Guaranteed to promote discussion!
Our resource, Closing the word gap: activities for the classroom is full of simple teaching ideas, vocabulary games and resources and is divided into sections for the EYFS, KS1 and KS2. Five tips for role play is another great resource for developing spoken language across all age groups.
Resources to develop written vocabulary
Onomatopoeia fun is a lovely resource for year 2 or 3 and asks children to match sounds to words, to describe sounds and to write their own sentences using onomatopoeiac vocabulary.
As we know, children often slip into the habit of using the same vocabulary in their writing. This resource suggests alternatives for the word 'said' and is great for displaying on tables or sticking into books. You may also like Improving sentences with exciting vocabulary and Sentence writing dice – engaging words, both of which challenge children to use new and higher tier vocabulary in their writing.
Synonym and antonym bingo is a fun way to get children thinking about the words they use, and Synonym spiders will give children practice at using a thesaurus.
Finally, because the link between reading and vocabulary development cannot be underplayed, our resource Closing the word gap: reading at home is focuses on how parents and carers can support children’s vocabulary development at home by encouraging reading for pleasure.
