Developing language and word knowledge in children is like building a magnificent temple… we watch in awe as stone by stone, brick by brick, cedar, cypress, iron, nails, glass and precious metals are brought together to form a perfect structure. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes teaching.
And it takes repetition.
Kids are like little word apprentices… wordsmiths. They love to learn, they love to learn words that are fun and descriptive and they love to use a word over and over again. Let this fun continue with 2 new adjectives.
Today’s 2 ADJECTIVES are camel and colossal; camel because we bumped into the word in the poem Lullaby on Day 14 of 365 Days of Literacy for Kids, and kids love bumping into words again and again. The word colossal because it’s fun to say and kids love to use fun words.
1. camel (adj.) – a color that resembles the color of the hair of a camel; golden tan; cloth made from the hair of a camel. What to love about this word? Kids may already know the word camel as a noun (a long-necked, humped ruminant mammal), but the word camel is also used to define a color, making it an adjective. Clothing of all kinds and coats, hats, shoes, socks, purses, rugs, furniture and linens may be camel. Describing something as camel is far more descriptive and definite than beige or tan. Example: The girl’s camel purse looked lovely with her white dress. camel is also used to define the cloth made from the hair of a camel. Example: Someone would like to place you on a camel blanket. Talk about the word camel with your children. Find camel in your surroundings. Encourage your children to use camel in their writing. camel.
2. colossal – enormous in size; anything gigantic in size or amount. What to love about this word? The word colossal derives from the word colossus, a statue or image of the human form in very large dimension. Kids love big things, but why limit description to the words big, large, gigantic, huge when colossal is so descriptive and definite. Volcanic eruptions may be colossal. A mural, a yacht, a yawn, feet, cupcakes, an octopus, an ice cream cone and even olives may be colossal. Example: The colossal cupcake was used as a birthday cake! Check your surroundings for colossal things… and have fun with the word!
camel. colossal. Introduce your children to these words. Use them. Have fun with them. Remember that LITERACY is all about WORDS – Written, Spoken, Felt. Use. Repeat often as you build magnificent language temples!
I remember when I was in school to become a teacher. We were learning about Whole Language and whether or not to correct for spelling when teaching creative writing. There was the example given of the boy wanting to write a story about the Enormous Dinosaur but he could not spell those words so instead settled for titling his story The Big Dog.
That lesson has always stayed with me. Sharon, I admit to sometimes only scanning your posts, but I try to make times for these. It puts a smile on my face reading great writing about Great writing.
Thanks so much, Miss Hillary! In my 30 years of teaching high school students, I can’t count the number of times kids avoided speaking, reading and writing in fear of getting something WRONG. Language development at home, in a fun and SHARING way (not precise and instructional!) makes kids more comfortable experimenting with words. Boys, in particular, are hesitant to use awesome, descriptive words in speaking, but are free to use these words in WRITING. All kids deserve the gifts of words.