This week, I am steering away from books and reading and looking for other fun ways to expand vocabulary and manipulate your lexicon.
If you use Twitter or follow other social media channels you will probably be aware of the sudden entrance of the Wordle phenomenon.
Based on a similar format to hangman or the old fashioned board game of Mastermind, both with code breaking objectives, this is a great example of a different way to approach developing vocabulary, and is perfect for prep age children as well as adults.
For those who don’t know about Wordle, it is a free web-based daily word game where you get only one game opportunity per day (no chance to spend hours being side tracked on a screen!), and six attempts to guess the word of the day. That word has five letters, so you start by making an initial sensible guess, then each round eliminates letters, leaving a selection that it could be, which allows you to whittle down the letters to hopefully find the right answer.
If you are looking for other free App based options, I can also recommend Scrabble, Boggle, Hangman, Word Cookies, as well as the traditional Solitaire. Just a few minutes a day will help your children to start to think about and manipulate a wider variety of language, and with a bit of luck, the fact that these are screen based may appeal too!
Mrs Emmett, Librarian
